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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
John Rafacz, or Sara Faiola
Faiola Davis Public Relations
Phone: (310) 248-5454

john@fdpr.com or sara@fdpr.com

InternetSpeech Launches its Popular netECHO Voice
Internet Service in Japan

netECHO Lets Consumers and Businesses Talk to
Web Sites, Listen to Email and Buy Online, Using Any Phone

TOKYO - March 19, 2002 - InternetSpeech, a premier voice Internet technology provider based in San Jose, Calif., today announced the Japanese launch of netECHO®, the only voice Internet solution to date that provides complete anywhere, anytime Internet access using any phone.

With netECHO, consumers and businesses can access Japanese- and English-language Web site content, listen to email and buy products online, just by picking up the phone. NetECHO is available through JBS and Alpha Networks, the first Internet Service Providers in Japan to carry the service.

Developed and deployed in the U.S. in 2000, netECHO empowers users by enabling them to navigate the Internet and listen to information from any Web site, using simple voice commands and any telephone. NetECHO patent pending technology provides content from any Web site in real-time, going beyond traditional voice portal features like news, weather, stock quotes and horoscopes. Customers can also search by key words and perform e-commerce transactions.

“InternetSpeech is devoted to offering true Internet access through a simple telephone interface,” said Dr. Emdad Khan, founder, president and CEO of InternetSpeech. “InternetSpeech is unique in that it presents the Web in an audio form, meaning that users aren’t tethered to a computer, nor are they subjected to the distracting and annoying ads or images that vie for their attention while surfing the visual Internet.”

Subscribers can easily customize netECHO to their needs. For example, users can bookmark favorite pages, select a male or female reading voice, and define the amount of information they want at a time. Users can also select a default home page, so someone interested in late-breaking news might select CNN or MSNBC as their starting point. The same types of transactions conducted over the Internet using a computer, such as product purchases and stock trades, are also possible with netECHO.

InternetSpeech’s voice Internet service is ideal for a variety of market segments, including:

  • Mobile business professionals who need access to data while out of the office;
  • Those with disabilities, particularly the visually-impaired;
  • People who don’t own a computer, or who don’t have one readily available; and
  • WAP- or other small screen-based phone users who want to hear real Internet content versus read limited, pre-packaged online information on a tiny screen.

NetECHO also supports business applications. The innovative technology instantly automates the voice-enabling process, making Web content accessible in real-time in an interactive audio format for customers who call from any phone. Depending on the site's content, customers can hear company news, as well as product and pricing information, check their order or account status, purchase products, obtain product support, and more, by using their own voice. Unlike other methods of voice-enabling (e.g. VoiceXML) that require extensive re-writing of Web content, voice-enabling with netECHO happens on the fly, without any re-coding, significantly saving costs and development time.

InternetSpeech plans to introduce later netECHO versions with real-time translation capabilities that allow Japanese users to hear English Web sites in their native language

For additional information on InternetSpeech and netECHO, consumers, ISPs and businesses can call 03-5770-7041.

About InternetSpeech:
InternetSpeech develops and markets netECHO, the only software available that provides businesses and consumers complete anytime, anywhere voice-based telephone access to the Internet. The company’s patent-pending technology can be bundled with other products, such as traditional computer-based Internet access or voice mail, and can be customized to meet individual business needs, such as employee access to Intranet sites. InternetSpeech also offers business software that automates the process of voice-enabling a company’s Web site and applications in any language, furthering the development of a globally connected voice Internet. InternetSpeech, a privately held company headquartered in San Jose, Calif., launched netECHO in November 2000. For more information about InternetSpeech, visit www.internetspeech.com or call 1-877-312-4638, or www.internetspeech.com/jp, or call 03-5770-7041.

netECHO is a registered trademark of InternetSpeech.

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