Talking Yellow Pages

THE CHALLENGE

You are running late and need to find a suitable restaurant where you can meet a client. The directory service has been automated, but you have little patience with multi-level menus that ask you to enter touchtones or say 'one' for Italian, 'two' for Chinese. You would rather dial a number and converse with a live operator.

THE SOLUTION

Bell South's Advertising and Publishing Corporation has implemented an innovative, friendly, and inexpensive electronic attendant that delivers directory information services. You can query this attendant in a natural, conversational manner. You can indicate the type of cuisine, restaurant location preference, and desired price range by simply speaking as you would to a live operator.

You say, "I'm looking for an Italian restaurant in Manhattan with entrees starting around $30." The electronic attendant searches through its database to find relevant matches, and plays back the information in a friendly voice.

The service has enabled BellSouth to differentiate itself in the crowded directory assistance market. The company has succeeded in leveraging its existing telephone network while creating additional revenue sources from advertising income. Future extensions to the service may include movies, cultural events, music and even transportation information.

Bell South made the transition from printed yellow pages to an on-line phone service by incorporating SpeechWorks, an automatic speech recognition (ASR) product developed by SpeechWorks Int'l, a supplier ASR technologies platform.