A new service will allow registered users to send voice messages to a selected number of e-mail addresses.
Limelight Software Solutions, is a registered Vodacom wireless application service provider, developed Voice2email, a service that was launched a month ago. Limelight director Colin Bridge says the service, which sends voicemails as an attached sound bite via e-mail, is not restricted to Vodacom customers.
"Although it is a Vodacom service, you can phone the 082 number from either a land-line or any of the networks. You just have to complete the online registration form."
The number of e-mail addresses that a subscriber can register is limited, but people can register for free as many times as they wish, says Bridge. "Users will be able to capture up to nine sets of e-mail addresses. You can enter between one and ten addresses per set, so you will be able to capture up to 90 addresses once registered."
In order to ensure the sound bites are kept to an acceptable size, voice mails are limited to 90 seconds, but Bridge says this has proved more than sufficient for existing subscribers.
"A 90-second voice mail will work out to about half a megabyte, but people so far really only send half a minute messages. That works out to be around 200KB."
The target market for the service is broad as it has both business and personal applications, says Bridge. "From a personal perspective, sending messages overseas has proved the most popular so far. Not only is it more personal and emotive than, say, an SMS, but also it is charged at normal cellphone rates.
"From a business perspective, it basically turns a phone into a Dictaphone. For example, a manager could send a voice message to his entire team, and scream and shout - or praise - them from anywhere around the globe."
Once a voice message is recorded, it will arrive almost instantly. "If it takes two minutes, that would be a long time," says Bridge.
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