Vocalis Group PLC - Opening of New US Office, etc

RNS Number:2984M
Vocalis Group PLC
15 June 2000


   Vocalis Group plc announces opening of new US office and agreement with    
                          Houston-based ISP, WT.net.                          

Vocalis, the international speech technologies group, announces today the
opening of a new US office in Houston, Texas and an alliance with one of
Houston's leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs), WT.net (www.wt.net),
which has more than 40,000 subscribers.

Located at Suite 369, 2400 Augusta Place, Houston, Vocalis' new office will
play an important role in supporting the company's rapidly growing activities
in the USA.

Mike Williams, President of Vocalis Inc.,commented, "As the world's fastest
growing and most sophisticated IT marketplace, the USA is of critical
importance to Vocalis, which is developing and implementing some of the most
advanced speech technologies available. Our Houston office is a vital element
in our plans to achieve significant business growth throughout the region."

The opening of its new office follows a series of recent moves by Vocalis in
the USA, including the launch of its Internet-related products, SpeechMail and
SpeecHTML, as well as several distribution and marketing agreements with US
companies.

Today, Vocalis also announces an alliance with one of Houston's leading
Internet Service Providers (ISPs), WT.net (www.wt.net), which has more than
40,000 subscribers. 

The two companies have signed a joint marketing contract for SpeechMail, the
system developed by Vocalis that allows email users to access their emails
solely over the telephone, using a combination of Advanced Speech Recognition
and text-to-speech technologies.  SpeechMail is already widely used by many
leading ISPs, including BT Internet, Cable & Wireless and UUNET.

"SpeechMail will form a valuable addition to the services offered by WT.net,
extending our focus to meet our customers needs," said Jack Jui, President and
CEO of WT.net.

"The success of SpeechMail to date clearly shows that people want to be able
to access their emails not just from a PC, but wherever they are, and a
natural speech interface used over the telephone is the ideal way of achieving
that. We are confident SpeechMail will prove just as popular with our
customers as it is elsewhere." 

About Vocalis

Vocalis Group plc, as a leading speech technology Group, builds a range of
voice activated telephony products for customers around the world. Vocalis was
formed in 1993 and has been trading on the London Stock Exchange since July
1996. 

The Vocalis technologies areas include: -

SpeechWare, Vocalis' proprietary third generation advanced speech recognition
technology, which is available to purchase under license. This is fully
supported with toolkits and is available in most of the languages across the
globe. 
The Website is http://www.vocalisspeechware.com 

Vocalis' Internet Product range allows access to information on the Internet
by simply picking up the telephone and hearing the information. SpeecHTML
allows companies to offer a telephone number which people can call to access
the information on the Website, which they can then interact with using spoken
commands. SpeechMail enables people to call and access their e-mail messages;
they can hear them, reply and delete them using simple spoken commands.
The Websites are http://www.speechtml.com and http://www.speechmail.co.uk

SPEECHtel is a platform with voice activated service applications for fixed
and mobile telephone operators around the world. These include both operator
services and value added services, such as directory assistance, unified
messaging and voice dialling.
The Website is http://www.speechtel.com 

The Vocalis Website is at http://www.vocalis.com.

For further information:       
Philippa Buttle
Vocalis Group plc
Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]       

Victoria Bisset
ICIS
Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]


ABOUT WT.net

WT.net started Internet Access in November 1995, and now supports more than
5000 dial up lines with over 40,000 dial up clients. It is a National ISP
headquartered in Houston, with POP locations in several major US cities, and
also several office locations. SpeechMail will be a further addition to the
already wide range of services it offers, including gaming, front page
support, customised start page, extended web hosting abilities, web
browser-based email, server co-location service, a Houston Internet store.

END

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