As you may know, it’s possible to use your 3G phone as a Video IVR terminal. That means basically that you can call a number, have a video appear
on your mobile (the mobile will be sending a video of you, beware) and you can navigate through menus just like in an usual ivr (“to chat with naughty Melinda, press 3…”), but with video !

I was at an EBG conference a few months ago chere Jet Multimedia tried to make a demo of this (failed…). You can see Universal’s “LSTV” pilot on SFR network by dialing 5788 on your 3G Vodafone SFR mobile.

If you want to see how this works, check this article on Voxpilot’s website.

Now that you know what I’m going to talk about, here is the news : French operators will be launching in Q1 2007 their “Video+” short number services. Basically, just like with SMS+ this will be a short number (5 digits) with various billing plans to access a Video IVR service easily and through the same number through any operator. This might be also the start for new business opportunities … just as SMS+ has been ! So prepare yourself for the race to the most profitable Video+ service !

Technorati Tags: ivr, mobile, phone, services, video+