AT&T offers subscription-based language translation service via Muuzii
June 25, 2014 | By Mike Dano – AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T) today launched a new language translation service for Spanish and Chinese speakers through a new partnership with startup Muuzii. The service starts at $2.99 per month and allows users to send texts in either Spanish or Chinese and have the messages sent back to them translated into English. The service, powered by Muuzii, is promoted as providing “real-time, free-form, accurate translations in seconds.” Cindy Davis, Muuzii’s CMO, explained to FierceWireless that the company started working with AT&T in 2011 and inked a master licensing agreement with the carrier to launch the service. The company will offer two plans through AT&T: Muuzii Message, which costs $2.99 per month and will be billed to a subscriber’s AT&T bill. The service allows users to send a text message to a short code and have it returned in text in English. Muuzii Speak, which costs $3.99 per month and will be billed to a subscriber’s AT&T bill. The service allows users to send a text message to a short code and have it returned in both text and an audio file in English. “We’re not an app. As you know, the carriers don’t make any money from apps,” Davis explained. Instead, she said, the service runs through AT&T’s network and is available to any phone–including feature phones–that can send text messages. Davis said Muuzii and AT&T will jointly promote the service. She said the company is working to ink agreements with other U.S. wireless carriers. And to generate interest in its service, she said the company will return free translations to anyone who texts to 95997 through July 15 as part of a World Cup promotion. AT&T’s new partnership with Muuzii is just one of the carrier’s speech recognition and translation efforts. […]