Viva, the fastest growing mobile carrier in Dominican Republic, announced that it has launched TwitVoz (Call-n-Tweet) service on its mobile network. The solution has been sourced from Kirusa, the world’s leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value added services.
With this launch, Viva DR mobile subscribers can update their status on Twitter through voice tweets. This provides a very convenient alternative to texting. The service is available to all Viva DR GSM and CDMA subscribers across Dominican Republic, whatever the mobile handset model is, they do not need a smart phone. Subscribers can sign up for the service at viva.com.do/vas or directly at the callntweet.com webportal, and need to just dial 8948 (TWIT) to speak and update their status on Twitter. A user can speak in any language. The subscribers pay a price of DOP 1 (approximately 0.03 USD) for sending a voice tweet from their mobile, to update their Twitter status. Users also have the option to send a text tweet to the same short code, 8948, for the same price of DOP 1.
Miguel Toirac, Viva’s Value Added Services Manager, said, "Call-n-Tweet holds various benefits for the Twitter user community over a text tweet. It is easier and faster to tweet using voice. Audio works better than simple text as your voice can convey your emotions. Sending an audio message is a richer medium and users are not restricted to the message length of 160 characters. Call-n-Tweet can also be effectively used for micro blogging."
Commenting on the launch, Jean Carlo Sandy, CEO of Viva DR, said: "Twit Voz, or Call-n-Tweet, is one-of-its-kind service that makes it very convenient for our subscribers to send voice tweets while on the move. Social networking sites have become a very important part of our lives and constant interactions between people using sites such as Twitter make this ecosystem more vibrant. Our subscribers are looking for ways to interact with the social networking sites from their mobiles. We chose Kirusa for this solution for their proven expertise in working with Twitter. They also helped us launch the product in less than two weeks."
Speaking on the launch, Surinder Singh Anand, VP of Product Management at Kirusa, said, "We congratulate Viva for the pioneering launch of TwitVoz, the first voice tweeting application launched by a carrier worldwide. Kirusa’s Call-n-Tweet product is designed to be offered by carriers to allow their mobile subscribers to connect with social networking sites such as Twitter. In addition, subscribers in USA can sign up at callntweet.com and use the service for free."
