Online broker ETrade Securities Inc., for example, offers customers the ability to buy and sell securities from any phone. Increasing numbers of telecom companies offer speech-based directory searches and other services. The billion dollar mark should be passed in 2002. The growth in call centers also spurs revenue for speech companies. Call centers presently are costly in manpower, and customers are fed up reaching just voice-mail boxes or ending up in a queue when phoning in.
Companies also employ speech technology at their switchboards.
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