The appeal to operators and consumers is that the service works on any GSM handset and any network. There is no infrastructure upgrade or back-end provisioning for operators to worry about, or handset configuration for consumers, so an operator's entire subscriber base has access to the service.
There are no investment costs for the operator – the business model is based on revenue share. The service is hosted by an external partner and is automatically provisioned to all subscribers. Voice SMS can be used on any handset and can be brought to market in a month.
Digi – Malaysia's third-largest operator with more than 4 million subscribers – launched BubbleTALK in February. In August, usage had surged to 200,000 messages a day. During this time, customers were offered 10 free messages a day in a two-month promotion.
The heaviest voice-SMS addict sent 2000 messages in a month.
For subscribers, the service is easy to use and, compared to SMS, adds an emotional dimension to messaging. To send a message, the user dials "*" followed by the recipient's number, and leaves a message up to 30 seconds long. The service then sends an SMS alert to the receiver, who dials "*0*" to pick up the message. The voice service also makes messaging easy for people who are not familiar with alphabets supported by their mobiles.
Digi launched the service amid heavy advertising, and in one month, 10 percent of its subscribers had tried it. After five months, this had risen to more than 30 percent.
Sending or receiving a message costs USD 0.026 – although the first 10 messages can be listened to for free. The price is 50 percent higher than the cost of an SMS but a quarter of the cost of a regular voice-call minute.
Singapore-based operator M1 launched BubbleTALK in August. The service is hosted by Ericsson in its regional operating center in Singapore.
M1's SMS service is among the most successful in the world, with about nine messages per customer and they are now looking forward to even better messaging revenues.
Neil Montefiore, chief executive officer of M1, says: "We believe BubbleTALK will complement our SMS service and provide another convenient and easy-to-use messaging option for our customers. Given time and adoption by other networks, BubbleTALK has the potential to become as popular for messaging as SMS now is."
