The OMTP today called for standardisation between the numerous players involved in Visual Voicemail (VVM). With an ever increasing number of companies vying for a place in the increasingly popular VVM market (something we commented on this month), the OMTP is worried that without a certain amount of openness, the market will fragment and stagnate. Specifically, the OMTP wants them to standardise the interface between VVM clients and voice mail servers.
What is VVM?
Very simply, Visual Voicemail is the process of transforming voicemails into text. Your voicemails can then be accessed like a list of emails or text messages, from where you can archive them, listen to the original message or respond. VVM also records the time of the message and the identity of the caller.
So what’s the OMTPs problem?
The popularity of VVM, and the rapid increase in the number of VVM services being offered, has caused the OMTP to become worried that the market will fragment due to everyone just doing their own thing. It has recommended that the actual process by which VVM clients retrieve voicemails from a voicemail server should be made “open and standardised.” The OMTP says that with that basic structure made widely available and shared, the delivery and growth of VVM will be made faster and more friendly to the public.
From the release:
Tim Raby, CEO of OMTP said, “The voice mail service has changed little over many years of successful use by customers. Visual Voice Mail is a major step forward in enhancing this essential service and the new OMTP standardised interface will simplify deployment across different devices and operator platforms”
“Visual Voice Mail services are highly attractive for mobile users and are becoming more popular in the market. As such, we are pleased to see that through the successful cooperation between operators and vendors, within OMTP, a standard interface implementation for Visual Voice Mail services has been produced. This common solution will limit market fragmentation and facilitate to develop the market.” states Michael Hagspihl, Executive Vice President Terminal Management, T-Mobile International.
What we think?
Yet another call for standardisation in yet another part of the mobile services market. Does this one have a chance of being heeded? After all, various players have been calling for the same thinking to be applied to mobile barcodes for ages now. In the case of VVM, I’m inclined to think that a certain amount will be applied. This one of those services that immediately comes across as a good idea – mobile owners the world over could get immediate use from this service with little or no education. It’s quite likely that operators themselves will want to see this service standardised and implemented as soon as possible.
