Wildfire Communications Inc. announced Bell Mobility of Canada will become the first telecom service provider to offer the Network Wildfire personal assistant service commercially.
The limited market launch is expected to begin Sept. 16 to Bell Mobility’s 1.7 million subscribers in the Toronto area. The agreement was made under a co-development agreement with Bell Emergis, the network-centric application development division of Bell Canada that contracted with Wildfire to purchase the software licenses.
According to Rob Mechaley, chief executive officer at Wildfire, Bell Mobility will add the service throughout its coverage area of Ontario and Quebec as the facilities to do so become available.
Wildfire is a personalized answering service that includes voice mail, call display, call forward, call routing, and can place outgoing calls through voice-command dialing.
Wildfire subscribers will start with a set of basic services, such as voice-controlled voice mail and voice dialing. The Wildfire service then evaluates individual usage patterns and offers a trial of additional services that fit the user’s workstyle. The provider only customizes what the initial entry-level package will be, as different carriers may choose different features to offer at first, but the user decides what features to add afterward.
Bell Mobility will offer the service for a flat monthly fee of $20 to $29 Canadian, or US$13 to US$19, per month.
“Ours is a carrier centric in-network service at a flat rate. All others are service bureaus that are usage-variable and expensive,” Mechaley said.
Bell Mobility has been testing Wildfire since early this year. Other carriers still in the testing phase include Pacific Bell Mobile Services, Orange plc and Century Telephone Enterprises Inc.
“We’re making strong progress with other carriers. This is the first of several announcements we expect to make in upcoming months,” Mechaley said.
Pacific Bell, which helped design and develop the wireless version of Wildfire through a trial it conducted in San Diego last year, was expected to launch the service earlier this summer. While that launch is still expected, no date has been announced, nor has there been any reason given for the delay.
