CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

But when left to our imagination…

A Hackathon Focused on Call Control

CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

WHAT IS CALL CONTROL?

• Call Control is the ability for applications to take control of a call to do something – hopefully with added value on behalf of the calling parties.

• Call Control historically required Over The Top (OTT) services that sit outside the carrier networks to mediate the call.

• More recently, work is being done to allow Call Control to reside within the carrier network and allow for innovative groups to use this available technology -- The Foundry works here

• Call Control can occur at several points of integration within a normal call:

• In between the calling parties via SP-owned numbers• In between the calling parties via SP outbound call services• At the caller’s phone via a soft phone app

CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

WHY IS CALL CONTROL INTERESTING?

• Because as telephony and interactive technologies are converging on top of Web 3.0 semantic layers, new features, applications and systems are being developed faster than any time in history• Because as voice activation, TTS, ASR and NLP are becoming more accepted technologies in quality and reliability for support and service applications, these technologies are exploding with the help of call control• Because voice, image, touch and gesture will be the dominant user experience of the near future• Because calling and texting are still the worlds most used communication technologies• Because the world is mobile

CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

WHO BENEFITS FROM CALL CONTROL?

• Application Developers – building new skills and new achievements with new technologies • Start-ups – finding new markets and marketplaces• Product Managers – identifying new features to extend the life and the accessibility of current products• Carriers – finding new applications to mitigate churn and improve conversion• Consumers – using applications that utilize allowed data to make life easier and provide more opportunities

CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

EXAMPLE CALL CONTROL APPLICATIONS

• IVR, self service• Polling• Translation services• LBS Service Requests (eg. Taxi Dispatch, Local Plumbers, Restaurants)• Biometric voice identifiers for fraud management• Mid-Call Services (call recording, attendant, instant conferencing)• Reminders (wake-up, take medication, pay bills, doctor appointments, calendar integrations)

CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

CALL CONTROL OPTIONS – SERVER ONLY

Without a soft phone app, the application must use a specific number to intercept the call for call control.

That number can be published or unpublished as a proxy such as used in Google Voice.

The types of applications that can be built with server only -based call control include IVR systems, reminder outbound calls, conference calling, voicemail, fetch call systems.

CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

CALL CONTROL OPTIONS – SERVER & DEVICE COUPLED

Using a device-based or browser-based softphones can provide developers and product owners greater opportunity for improving user experience and adding new applications / features using real customer numbers and customer-allowed data.

Voxeo’s Phono is one such browser-based open source soft phone app that requires Flash, Java or WebRTC to run on the device

CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

CALL CONTROL LANDSCAPE

Technology Pro Con

- Simple to use- Brand recognition

- Only provides CC Basics

- Hosted Scripting and Web API options

- Now available through the AT&T APIMatrix

- Limited integration options w/ Scripting

- High-level language (Ruby)

- Technology Integration

- Runs @ Foundry

- Developer must know Ruby

CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

ADHEARSION ARCHITECTURE – VOICE APP FRAMEWORK

CAN YOU SPEAK MAGIC?

CALL CONTROL ATLANTA HACKATHON NEXT STEPS

• Mojo Lingo to develop a quick wiki / info page to provide developers new to telephony call control options and how-to’s

• AT&T to develop a step by step instruction for accessing call control in AT&T’s environment and sample applications with AT&T API suite

• Mojo Lingo to develop an AT&T branded soft app shell for Android / iOS using Phono and Phone Gap technologies to make it easier to add device call control for developers (approx 2 week dev & testing @ 15K -- Deliver by CES)

• AT&T to confirm location / additional hosts / partners for Nov 30th