BeVocal Integrates Etak/Westwood One Real-Time Traffic Information Into Its Voice-Enabled Services; Users Can Now Obtain Real-Time Traffic Information Via the Telephone
9 January 2001
BeVocal Integrates Etak/Westwood One Real-Time Traffic Information Into Its Voice-Enabled Services; Users Can Now Obtain Real-Time Traffic Information Via the Telephone
MENLO PARK, Calif.--Jan. 9, 2001--Etak Inc., a unit of Tele Atlas and the premier publisher of digital map databases and real-time traffic information, Tuesday announced that it has licensed its real-time traffic service to BeVocal, an award-winning voice portal technology pioneer.Under this agreement, BeVocal will utilize the Etak/Westwood One traffic data feed in its innovative voice-enabled services, enabling users to hear personalized, up-to-the-minute traffic reports for major metropolitan areas within the United States.
BeVocal's Total Voice Portal solution, offered through telecommunications carriers, will deliver the Etak/Westwood One real-time traffic service to wireless and landline telephone users. In addition to real-time traffic reports, BeVocal's carrier partners also offer voice-enabled driving directions, flight information, business locations, weather, stock quotes, sports and news information simply by speaking.
"BeVocal's research has found that mobile consumers want to be able to access location-based information while they're on the go," explained Amol Joshi, co-founder and vice president of marketing for BeVocal. "The Etak traffic service enables us to offer real-time traffic updates to users nationwide, covering 65 major metropolitan areas, making it a perfect match for BeVocal and our users."
"The increasing mobility of the workforce is creating great demand for wireless services that can help people utilize their time more efficiently and effectively," said Kiyoshi Hamai, Etak's vice president of product management and support. "While Etak traffic reports help users minimize their time on the road by helping them to get around traffic snarls, the BeVocal voice portal enables these users to retrieve the information more quickly and safely."
The Etak/Westwood One real-time traffic service, which now covers more than 92 percent of the nation's urban population, is provided through the cooperative efforts of Etak and Metro Networks. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Westwood One, Metro Networks is the world's largest supplier of broadcast radio and TV traffic reports.
The traffic service offers detailed real-time traffic information covering major streets, highways and interstates nationwide. It provides detailed incident reports, including a description of the problem, expected duration of the problem and degree of impact on traffic. The report also details where traffic will be affected, including direction of traffic and traffic speeds where available. This empowers travelers to make more intelligent, informed travel route decisions.
About BeVocal Inc.
BeVocal is an award-winning provider of voice infrastructure software, applications and services that extend the power of every phone. BeVocal is the first company to create voice portal applications that can be personalized based on a caller's location, delivered to any device and customized via an open development platform. Telecommunications companies and businesses can use BeVocal's automated phone solutions and scalable hosting network to offer millions of callers voice services for retrieving information, managing messages and conducting transactions simply by speaking.
Developers can build high quality voice applications using BeVocal's Web-based development platform, the BeVocal Cafe (http://cafe.bevocal.com/), while gaining access to millions of potential customers through BeVocal's carrier partners. BeVocal uses advanced speech recognition technology provided by Nuance Communications. BeVocal has headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., for additional information call 408/907-3200 or visit www.bevocal.com.
About Westwood One
Westwood One provides more than 150 news, sports, music, talk, entertainment programs, features, live events and 24-hour formats. Through its subsidiaries, Metro Networks/Shadow Broadcast Services, Westwood One provides local content to the radio and TV industries including news, sports, weather, traffic, video news services and other information. Westwood One serves more than 7,500 radio stations. Westwood One is managed by Infinity Broadcasting Corp.
About Etak, A Unit of Tele Atlas
Etak is a premier U.S. publisher of high-quality digital maps, real-time traffic information and advanced map technology used in a wide variety of business and consumer applications. With headquarters in Menlo Park, Etak was acquired by Tele Atlas of the Netherlands in May 2000. Together, Tele Atlas and Etak comprise the largest digital mapping company in the world with more than 1,200 employees and a digital map database that spans the globe.
For more information on Etak or Tele Atlas products and services, visit http://www.etak.com or http://www.teleatlas.com.