RIYADH, 6 May 2003 — Three IT companies — two from the Kingdom and one from the UAE — have joined hands to launch the first Arabic e-mail reader service in Saudi Arabia that enables subscribers to access their e-mail via phone or mobile.
The launch was announced at a press conference where Emerging Technologies of the UAE and Riyadh-based companies Tatweer 1 and Advanced Telecom Company (ATC) offered bilingual business solutions, such as the news reader, education voice portal, e-government and banking applications based on Intel’s processors and Sakhr Arabic and Nuance English speech engines.
Emerging Technologies of the UAE is a software application developer of voice recognition solutions and a member company of the Cassells Group. Tatweer 1 is the Kingdom’s first Arabic data/voice application provider using both speech recognition solutions through phone media and short message system (SMS) multi-media message service.
ATC, a limited liability company licensed by Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), provides telephony service solutions, including prepaid phone cards, postpaid calling cards, call centers and customized IVR applications.
Sassine Mazraani, managing director, Emerging Technologies, explained the cooperation between ATC and Emerging Technologies would bring speech recognition services to the 7.5 million telephone and mobile users in the Kingdom, adding that the Arabic e-mail reader was developed after six months of intensive research.
“There is a huge speech recognition business potential in Saudi Arabia due to its advanced telecommunication status,” said Mansour Al-Obaid, partner and technology advisor, Tatweer-1. Potential beneficiaries of the new technology could include call centers, the public sector, education centers, and the financial and travel sectors.
