Extension to BT Contract

Eckoh Technologies PLC
28 July 2005


For Immediate Release                                               28 July 2005

              Eckoh's Speech Alliance with BT extended until 2010

  • BT extends Speech Alliance contract with Eckoh Technologies to 2010
  • Eckoh has delivered 20 speech applications to 17 BT customers since
    January 2004
  • Hosted speech solutions market expected to grow by £112.5m over the next 6
    years *
  • Over 23 million minutes generated to date through the BT-Eckoh Speech
    Alliance

Eckoh Technologies plc ("Eckoh"), one of Europe's leading speech application
service providers and BT, one of the world's leading providers of communications
solutions, today announced the extension of their speech alliance contract to
provide BT customers with hosted speech recognition services up to 2010.

BT's extension of the alliance is a clear endorsement of Eckoh's high
performance and capability in the delivery of hosted speech recognition services
to top corporate BT customers since the formation of the partnership in 2003.
The five-year extension will enable BT to fulfil the increasing requirement from
customers for long term, multi-year contracts for Eckoh's hosted speech
recognition services.

Over the past three years, Eckoh, together with BT, has helped a large number of
customers across the finance, government, utilities, telecoms, retail and
entertainment sectors, to successfully transform their business operations
through the introduction of hosted speech recognition services.

The speech alliance was created to meet the growing demand from businesses for
advanced speech recognition technology, and since January 2004 a total of 20
speech applications have been successfully deployed for 17 BT customers
generating over 23 million minutes of self-service speech transactions.

Chris Pike, general manager, CRM solutions at BT says: "In the digital networked
economy that we live and work in today, enabling customers to make contact in a
way that best suits their needs is a real challenge facing many organisations.
The extension of our alliance with Eckoh to 2010 is testament to a winning
partnership approach in helping to transform business operations across a wide
range of vertical markets through the deployment of speech recognition services
to our customer base.

Over the past three years, Eckoh has consistently demonstrated client service
excellence through their leading market expertise, speed of customer response
and through their state of the art deployment of sophisticated client handling
solutions and broader self-service options to our customers."

Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer of Eckoh commented:

"Since the formation of our alliance with BT in 2003, we have experienced
considerable growth in the demand for self-service speech solutions.  More
businesses in the UK are turning to self-service speech solutions to reduce
cost, to improve customer satisfaction and to enhance customer service levels.

Through our extended alliance with BT, we look forward to building on our
remarkable success in driving exciting new business opportunities for BT
customers in the accelerated market for advanced speech recognition services."


For further enquiries, please contact:

Eckoh Technologies plc
Martin Turner, Chief Executive Officer               Tel: [phone]
Nik Philpot, Chief Operating Officer

Buchanan Communications                              Tel: [phone]
Mark Edwards/Jeremy Garcia

BT                                                   Tel: [phone]
Suzy Christopher, PR manager


More about Hosted Speech Solutions:

Eckoh's hosted speech recognition services are typically applied in a customer
service environment. The introduction of BT- Eckoh's "Real-Time Stock Quoting
service" on behalf of TD Waterhouse, has increased the volume of customer
enquiries, reduced contact costs for routine transactions and increased the
availability of agents to handle higher value calls.

"TrainTracker(TM), a speech recognition service designed and deployed by BT -
Eckoh for National Rail Enquiries, is another example where the application of a
self-service speech solution has delivered clear benefits to both the client and
the end user. By calling the TrainTracker(TM) number (0871 200 4950), customers
can access the latest arrival and departure times for trains running on the UK
mainland. The service is aimed at providing instant access to real-time
information at busy times and times of service disruption, without having to
queue for an advisor."

Other key speech recognition services delivered by Eckoh through the BT alliance
include: call routing, automated bill payment, ticket booking, product ordering,
information retrieval, credit card validation, name and address verification and
information capture.

Leading BT clients availing of Eckoh's speech recognition services include: UGC
Cinemas, Barclays Stockbrokers, TD Waterhouse, Her Majesty's Court Service,
Communisis, Abbey at Work, BSkyB, Electrolux and The Central Office of
Information. Key business wins over the past six months include Lloyds TSB
Registrars, Three Valleys Water and the NIE.

*Source: Data Monitor 2005

About Eckoh Technologies:

Eckoh Technologies plc designs, builds, hosts and manages speech solutions for
large corporations and organisations using ASR (Advanced Speech Recognition) and
IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technologies. It is a leading UK service
provider and infrastructure owner/operator and continues to exploit the
significant growth in demand for speech solutions across Europe.

In 2003, Eckoh formed a strategic alliance with BT to capitalise on the growing
opportunity for speech technology in the corporate marketplace. Since 2003, both
parties have combined their core competencies to create an unparalleled customer
service offering in the provision of hosted speech solutions.

The relationship with BT empowers Eckoh to leverage BT's World class Intelligent
Network capability, their CRM expertise and their broader telephony service
offering whilst BT benefits from Eckoh's leading market expertise and technical
skill-set in the design and application of hosted speech solutions.

The combined strengths of both parties have created an unrivalled and
value-added speech proposition and clients of the alliance include: Barclays
Stockbrokers, TD Waterhouse, NIE, UGC Cinemas, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National
Rail Enquiries and Three Valleys Water.

Eckoh has a call processing platform of 10,000 lines (capable of handling over
500,000 calls an hour) of which over 6,500 lines incorporate speech recognition
technology, making it the largest speech enabled call processing platform in
Europe.

In the year to 31 March 2005 Eckoh Technologies plc generated a turnover of
£79.7 million and had a cash balance of £13.3m. Further information can be found
at www.eckoh.com.

About BT

BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions serving
customers in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.  Its principal activities
include networked IT services, local, national and international
telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products
and services.

BT consists principally of three lines of business:

  • BT Retail, providing a comprehensive range of communications and related
    services to more than 20m UK consumers and businesses.
  • BT Wholesale, providing network services and solutions within the UK to
    more than 600 fixed and mobile operators and service providers including the
    provision of broadband and private circuits.
  • BT Global Services, providing networked IT services to meet the needs of
    multi-site organisations globally.  BT Global Services operates in more than
    130 countries and also offers international carrier services.

In the year ended 31 March 2005, BT Group's turnover was £18,623 million with
profit before goodwill amortisation, exceptional items and taxation of £2,085
million.

BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York. British
Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and
encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group.

For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt



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