AT&T Co has employed voice recognition technology to produce a fully integrated digital answering system for cellular phones. AT&T Bell Laboratories and AT&T Microelectronics have combined forces to develop a custom speech recognition chip set that, in conjunction with an answering system, is built into the phone. This is claimed to enable users both to create an outgoing message and to receive incoming messages when they are away from the phone. Speech-activated features in the chip set also enable users to perform hands-off dialling or to answer or end calls by verbal commands. Initially there will be two mobile phones, the 3040 and 3050, and two transportable models, 3440 and 3450. They will be produced at the Little Rock Operations Center that currently manufactures networking products and peripherals for marketing by NCR Corp as well as AT&T Smart Cards and readers.
