Turin, Italy and Mexico City, Mexico - Loquendo, the global speech technology company, and Nekotec Telecom, a leading manufacturer of telecommunications infrastructure, today announced the integration of Loquendo's multi-lingual solutions within Nekotec's NK90 service delivery platform. Nekotec Telecom's extensive experience in the telecommunications market, as well as its strong international presence, has successfully consolidated its leadership in the provision of integral solutions to the main carriers, including major customers such as Telmex and America Movil.

Nekotec and Loquendo are currently working together on the development of VoiceXML speech-enabled services for some important customers in the rapidly growing Latin American market. Many businesses in the region are beginning to understand how speech technology can drastically reduce operational costs, increase revenue and, by automating call centres and other services, can make vital information readily available 24 hours a day.

The NK90 is a powerful convergent service node, designed to offer value added services with features such as IVR, VoIP gateway, and media server. The NK90 integrates modules which complement its different configurations, depending on the requirements of the solution to be implemented. Loquendo VoiceXML platform solutions have incorporated several technological components within Nekotec Telecom products, including Loquendo ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) and Loquendo TTS (Text To Speech). NK90 has been integrated with VoxNauta through Loquendo's proprietary protocol, DAP. Loquendo VoxNauta 6.0 includes ASR, TTS and VoiceXML 2.0, soon to be upgraded to VoxNauta 7.0, incorporating VoiceXML 2.1.

Loquendo ASR allows the NK90 to access information using voice commands instead of a telephone keypad, and currently supports several different languages, including English and Latin American Spanish. With the addition of this technology, voice applications are now possible that weren't previously supported because of the limitations of the telephone keypad. Loquendo ASR is able to recognise many voice prompts including names, addresses, and general commands.

With Loquendo TTS technology, any text that is stored in a file or database can be read aloud for the user. It has become a very useful tool within the NK90 platform, especially when a great deal of information is required or is continually updated.

Nekotec's customer base is already taking advantage of the Loquendo technology incorporated into the NK90. Several applications have been developed including VAD (Voice Activated Dialing), Directory Assistance, Emergency Number Calling and Reminder Services. These have been deployed within the carriers' VAS infrastructure.

"Loquendo technology powers Nekotec Telecom's solutions by providing us with a wide array of applications that offer advanced telecommunication services," says Manuel Rojas, Nekotec Telecom's President. "With ASR and TTS technological components integrated within NK90, we've been able to build innovative value-added services, and deliver market solutions of great value to the end user."

"Nekotec is a major player in the telecommunications sector, and Loquendo is ideally placed to provide Nekotec with the speech solutions it requires to keep it ahead of its field," says Rosanna Duce, Loquendo's Vice President. "The speech technology market in Latin America is currently growing rapidly, and Loquendo is very pleased to be part of the expansion of this important sector."

About Nekotec
Nekotec Telecom, founded in 1990, is a leading manufacturer of telecommunications infrastructure. The company is focused on customer care and value added services and solutions. Based in Mexico City, Nekotec has coverage in several countries throughout Latin America and the USA.

The NK90/NKCC system is widely used by several major carriers and call centers. It currently holds over 180 systems, 1,600 voice E1s and over 30,000 VoIP ports in operation, thus making Nekotec Telecom the main added-value convergent service node provider.

Visit www.nekotec.com for more information.

About Loquendo - Vocal Technology and Services
With over 30 years of R&D expertise, Loquendo is at the forefront of the global speech-technologies market. Its high quality, high-performance technologies (Loquendo TTS - text to speech, Loquendo ASR - automatic speech recognition, Loquendo MRCP Server, Loquendo Speaker Verification) and platforms guarantee systems integrators the best solutions in 17 languages and 39 voices - with more coming soon.

Currently available languages include U.S. and U.K. English, Castilian, Catalan, Mexican, Chilean, Argentinean and American Spanish, Italian, German, French, Greek, Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, Brazilian, Portuguese and Swedish - in both male and female voices. Many more are under development to give customers expanded reach in today's global marketplace.

Loquendo deploys technologies that power millions of calls every day in telecommunications and enterprise markets throughout the world.

For more information about Loquendo, and to hear demos of all the Loquendo voices, go to www.loquendo.com.