What is Text-to-Speech?

Text-to-speech is a process where we take a file of written text and push it through our speech engine (a piece of software), and that then turns it into a voice file (wav). Then we call a phone number from our line servers in a data centre and "play" the voice file when the call is answered. You can think of it as a "talking sms".

With voice (text-to-speech), the advantages are:

1. Louder and more sustained ring tone than SMS; more likely to be noticed in a noisy environment and less likely to be disregarded for later viewing as an sms would. Thus perfect for high priority messages.
2. Able to get the message through where there is no or poor mobile phone access: e.g. farms, rural areas, etc.
3. Able to get the message through where only landlines are available; e.g. in a secure environment, hospital, etc. where mobile phones are prohibited.
4. People driving a vehicle legally cannot read an SMS. But with a car phone or Bluetooth headphone, they can legally listen to a voice message. This means safer and less risk to all parties.
5. Better for recipients with poor eyesight that may not be able to read the text on a mobile phone screen.
6. No cost of reply to the recipient (key press return) for a voice call. Depending on the plan (especially pre-paid) for the recipients' handsets, there may be a cost of reply for an sms.
7. Voice mail diversion included.

Our clients that use this include:

1. Service providers (IT, utilities, emergency services, etc.) where they need to get the message to crews for situations that require immediate attention.
2. Restaurants that advise clients that their table is ready and they are waiting in a noisy bar.
3. Schools that need to know from a parent if an absence of a student is excused, and the parent usually does not have enough credit on their mobile phone to reply to the sms.
4. Traders that need to have immediate decisions by their customers on buy/sell propositions.
5. Workers on oil rings where the noise is much to notice an sms on their phone.
6. Reminders for elderly to take medicines where they just don't notice an sms and can't read it either.
7. Fleet operators that need to get routing messages to drivers while they are on the road.

See: http://www.welcorp.com/welhome/aboutVoice.asp