<s>
Voice	B-General_Concept
portals	I-General_Concept
are	O
the	O
voice	O
equivalent	O
of	O
web	O
portals	O
,	O
giving	O
access	O
to	O
information	O
through	O
spoken	O
commands	O
and	O
voice	O
responses	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Ideally	O
a	O
voice	B-General_Concept
portal	I-General_Concept
could	O
be	O
an	O
access	O
point	O
for	O
any	O
type	O
of	O
information	O
,	O
services	O
,	O
or	O
transactions	O
found	O
on	O
the	O
Internet	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
telecommunications	O
circles	O
,	O
voice	B-General_Concept
portals	I-General_Concept
may	O
be	O
referred	O
to	O
as	O
interactive	O
voice	O
response	O
(	O
IVR	O
)	O
systems	O
,	O
but	O
this	O
term	O
also	O
includes	O
DTMF	O
services	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
the	O
emergence	O
of	O
conversational	O
assistants	O
such	O
as	O
Apple	O
's	O
Siri	B-Application
,	O
Amazon	B-Application
Alexa	I-Application
,	O
Google	B-Application
Assistant	I-Application
,	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Cortana	I-Application
,	O
and	O
Samsung	O
's	O
Bixby	B-Application
,	O
Voice	B-General_Concept
Portals	I-General_Concept
can	O
now	O
be	O
accessed	O
through	O
mobile	O
devices	O
and	O
Far	O
Field	O
voice	O
smart	O
speakers	O
such	O
as	O
the	O
Amazon	B-Device
Echo	I-Device
and	O
Google	B-Device
Home	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
Voice	B-General_Concept
portals	I-General_Concept
have	O
no	O
dependency	O
on	O
the	O
access	O
device	O
;	O
even	O
low	O
end	O
mobile	O
handsets	O
can	O
access	O
the	O
service	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Voice	B-General_Concept
portals	I-General_Concept
talk	O
to	O
users	O
in	O
their	O
local	O
language	O
and	O
there	O
is	O
reduced	O
customer	O
learning	O
required	O
for	O
using	O
voice	O
services	O
compared	O
to	O
Internet/SMS	O
based	O
services	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
this	O
case	O
,	O
a	O
multimodal	B-Application
interaction	I-Application
would	O
be	O
preferable	O
to	O
a	O
voice-only	O
interface	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Live-agent	O
and	O
Internet-based	O
voice	B-General_Concept
portals	I-General_Concept
are	O
converging	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
range	O
of	O
information	O
they	O
can	O
provide	O
is	O
expanding	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
promises	O
to	O
make	O
it	O
practical	O
to	O
greatly	O
improve	O
speaker	B-Application
recognition	I-Application
rates	O
and	O
expand	O
the	O
range	O
of	O
information	O
that	O
can	O
be	O
provided	O
by	O
a	O
voice	B-General_Concept
portal	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Quack.com	B-Application
launched	O
its	O
service	O
in	O
March	O
2000	O
and	O
has	O
since	O
obtained	O
the	O
first	O
overall	O
voiceportal	B-General_Concept
patent	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Quack.com	B-Application
was	O
acquired	O
by	O
AOL	O
in	O
2000	O
and	O
relaunched	O
as	O
AOL	O
By	O
Phone	O
later	O
that	O
year	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Nuance	O
,	O
the	O
dominant	O
provider	O
of	O
speech	O
recognition	O
and	O
text-to-speech	O
technology	O
,	O
is	O
starting	O
to	O
deliver	O
voice	B-General_Concept
portal	I-General_Concept
solutions	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Apart	O
from	O
public	O
voice	B-General_Concept
portal	I-General_Concept
services	O
,	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
technology	O
companies	O
,	O
including	O
Alcatel-Lucent	O
,	O
Avaya	O
,	O
and	O
Cisco	O
,	O
offer	O
commercial	O
enterprise-grade	O
voice	B-General_Concept
portal	I-General_Concept
products	O
to	O
be	O
used	O
by	O
companies	O
to	O
serve	O
their	O
clients	O
.	O
</s>
