The Promise of a Video World

In the world of voice you never have to miss a phone call. In a 3G world, this promise of voice messaging systems evolves to "never miss a video phone call". With video mailbox service, users can record, preview and exchange video mail messages with each other without requiring a real-time connection.

When a called party is absent, callers can record a video message using either a camera-enabled mobile phone or a desktop webcam that is stored in the user's video mailbox. Messages can also be sent from one video mailbox to another. These can be either messages left by callers (unanswered calls) or messages recorded by the user (intentional deposit).The service can also integrate and interoperate with existing messaging services, such as email, MMS and streaming.

What the Promise Delivers
Video mailbox service focuses on completing calls placed on 3G networks - calls that would otherwise be lost because the subscriber is out of the coverage area, the line is busy or there is no answer. This results in increased revenues for operators because more video calls are charged when forwarded to a video mailbox. When the user is reachable again, he or she is notified of available video messages and can watch them from a UMTS visiophone or an IP terminal.

Extra Benefits
Another benefit for users is that a video mailbox service can be extended with extra functionality, to provide a common mailbox for subscribers' email, video, voice and fax messages. For example, when integrated with a personal messaging service, a video mailbox can present users with a single unified interface to access every message: email, SMS, MMS, fax, voice or video.

Horizons Beyond 3G Owners
Video messaging brings additional key features to users outside the 3G handset owner community.

• With a personal messaging service, video mailbox users can access their video messages via PC or PDA using a personalized Web messaging homepage.
  
• A video telephony gateway can extend the service to fixed IP video phones (H.323 and SIP): For an unavailable 3G subscriber, a webcam-enabled PC user is transferred to the subscriber's video mailbox, where a video message can be left for the subscriber.
  
• Video messages can be forwarded through commonly available communications channels: MMS forward (video clip attachment), e-mail forward and audio call forward.
  
• In response to 2G/3G convergence issues, the voice component of a video message can be extracted from the video and be heard using a fixed line or a 2G handset. The audio part is extracted from the mp4 video file and presented via a voice browser to the legacy voice messaging system.

Benefits for All
Users who have experienced one mobile video service can then be motivated to use other services based on increased user satisfaction and a visually stimulating experience. Service providers reap additional revenues while providing appealing new services.

Alcatel offers complete mobile video communications solution that includes video telephony, video conferencing and video mailbox. To learn more about Alcatel's Video Mailbox Solution, visit our video telephony solution information area.