Bell Canada Selects Locus Dialogue's Speech Recognition Technology For Its Electronic Phone Book On The Vista 350

Business Wire, Nov 18, 1998

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 1998--Bell Canada, in partnership with Tele-Direct (Publications) Inc., has introduced a totally automated phone directory application using speech recognition technology from Locus Dialogue.

Over 280,000 Vista 350(TM) phone users in the greater Montreal and Toronto areas now have free access to an electronic directory which can be activated by using a combination of on-screen softkeys and the user's voice. Bell Canada's Electronic Phone Book is a large-scale telecommunications application using Locus Dialogue's automatic speech recognition technology. This technology allows the total automation of directory assistance services for published Bell Canada business and residential listings, including phone numbers, addresses and postal codes, if available, in Quebec and Ontario.

"Electronic Phone Book is an innovative service developed to meet the needs and demands of our customers," said Josee Goulet, Group Vice-President, Consumer Markets and Sales, Bell Canada. "We are providing customers another choice in how they can obtain Bell directory listings in addition to Canada411.sympatico.ca on the Internet, and directory assistance provided by our operator services."

"The marriage of speech recognition and screen phone technologies provides our customers with more telecommunications applications than ever before," explained Morlen Reynolds, Director of Network Architecture, Bell Canada.

Yves Normandin, President of Locus Dialogue, said: "We are very proud that Bell Canada has chosen Locus Dialogue for the quality of its advanced speech recognition technology and its ability to deliver applications on time. Bell's Electronic Phone Book is an excellent illustration of Locus Dialogue's scaleable automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology using the SoftDialogue ASR Server and Software Development Tools, which can be deployed in very large telecommunications applications such as this one.

"We hope to develop similar partnerships with major telecom operators in the U.S. who want to bring their directory services to a higher level of automation and technological sophistication," he added.

Locus Dialogue is a leader in the design and commercialization of applications, solutions and tools based on its automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology developed for the telecommunications industry.

Locus Dialogue's ASR technology was developed over a 10-year period by its founding partners who previously headed the Speech Recognition Group at the Computer Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM). Locus Dialogue's advanced technology allows speech to become the standard means of communication between people and machines in telecommunications. This emerging market is expected to grow to US$37 billion by 2003 according to a 1998 market study by TMA Associates, a California-based independent consulting firm specialized in advanced speech technology.

Locus Dialogue has strong backing from major North American venture capital investors. The company has secured leading distributors for its speech recognition products throughout North America and France. Locus has offices in Montreal and San Francisco and currently employs 70 people.