Mobile industry moves to standardise visual voicemail

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 02 June 2009 10:50

IT Industry - Strategy

The Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) has adopted a set of specifications for visual voicemail covering how messages are configured and retrieved on mobile handsets with the aim of greatly increasing uptake of the technology.

The new specification covers how messages are configured and retrieved on mobile handsets and according to Tim Haysom, chief marketing officer at OMTP "Besides providing consistency and security across all mobile handsets, these recommendations will allow visual voicemail to fulfil its huge mass market potential."

According to software developer Comverse, which claims more deployments of visual voicemail than any other provider, "This type of universal consistency can enable visual voicemail to be offered by operators and handset vendors to virtually all customers, which would help boost its penetration."

Comverse says that "Millions of people are already using visual voicemail because it dramatically enhances the user experience compared to conventional voicemail. Instead of dialing in for voice messages, users see information about each voicemail in a message inbox, such as sender, time of call and message length, and then click to listen to any message. They also can save, forward and reply to messages."

OMTP is comprised of 35 operators, handset manufacturers, chip makers, content providers, and middleware vendors. It is backed by many of the largest mobile operators and has members from major hardware and software vendors.

The organisation is also responsible for moves to standardise mobile phone chargers and for the BONDI initiative to provide a consistent and secure web services interface that can be used by all web developers across multiple device platforms. The name of Australia's most famous beach was chosen for the initiative "because OMTP wants mobile customers to have the greatest surfing experience whilst making the experience as safe as possible."