Voice plays an important role in a new service, launched in Grand Rapid, MI, which enables mobile subscribers to use their wireless phones to pay for parking. But [as many a voice over says in old infomercials] “that’s not all!” The service can also issue text based messages to warn people when their parking meter is about to expire.

Netherlands-based Parkmobile Group positions itself as “the sole supplier to offer totally integrated solutions for management of all parking-related issues.” In Grand Rapids, it has contracted with VoltDelta On Demand Solutions to host an application which registers subscribers by having them speak their license plate number and credit card information from their cell phones. In subsequent transaction, it uses caller ID to identify and validate the originating telephone. It prompts callers to identify the “zone” in which they are parking and then processes the payment.

Callers can also instruct the system to send them a text message when the meter is about to expire. At that point they can extend their parking time without having to run out to feed the meter. A spokesperson for VoltDelta characterized the service as “the first of its kind” in North America; however, Parkmobile is a global company which, in addition to Amsterdam, has European offices in Athens, Brussels, London and Munich. Its North American operations are in Atlanta, Burbank, New York and Toronto.

Categories: Articles

Tags: Recombinant Telephony, mobile speech, hosted speech