Qwest launched a "talking Internet" Wednesday that the company is billing as the first of its kind.
Unlike other trendy wireless Internet services that display Web content on the phone's display screen, Qwest Voice Browsing will let the Qwest customer ask for information using voice commands. Information, gathered from Internet content, is returned verbally within a few seconds.
Also unlike other wireless Web services, Voice Browsing does not require users to buy new phone handsets, though the service is only available to Qwest wireless customers.
Information available from Voice Browsing includes worldwide flight information; traffic conditions in the 65 largest metropolitan areas of the United States, including the Salt Lake area; worldwide weather forecasts; news; sports; and stock quotes.
"We chose the services you'll need most when you're out and about," said Cynthia Kalmus-Hofmann, Qwest's executive director of customer retention and strategy.
Kalmus-Hofmann said content being offered by Voice Browsing was chosen based on customer demand and is being provided by BeVocal, based in Santa Clara, Calif.
Users can subscribe to the service for $4.95 a month with time spent using the service deducted from the phone account's pool of monthly minutes. Kalmus-Hofmann said Qwest said the service will be free of commercials.
Subscribers connect by dialing (star)999. A voice then guides users through the different options. The caller can interrupt at any time with designated voice commands like "stocks" or "news." Voice Browsing will report on a designated list of stocks based on input the user gives either over the phone or from a Web site, www.qwestvoicebrowsing.com, which also has subscription information.
Kalmus-Hofmann said Voice Browsing does not offer "pushed" services, a feature on Qwest's Browse Now wireless Web service.
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