China Unicom Selects Nuance Communications and iFLYTEK

BURLINGTON, Mass. - China Unicom, a mobile phone operator in China, selected Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) in partnership with iFLYTEK, a provider of Chinese speech and language technology, to deliver a speech-based music search and download service.

China Unicom's new offering leverages the core speech technologies of Nuance Mobile and iFLYTEK's speech applications for the Chinese market. The new service provides users with a way to search, download and configure ringback tones by replacing touchtone menus with a speech-based application.

The service, currently deployed or in trials across 18 provinces in China, is a speech-enabled song selection application in China. China Unicom plans to deploy the application on more than 1,000 ports as it expands the new service to additional provinces. iFLYTEK and Nuance are offering similar song selection applications to additional operators in China and are working together to develop related applications.