14 DAY TRIAL // Wireless carrier AT&T announced on Monday a new solution aimed at people with hearing and speech loss, the AT&T Real Time IM. The new solution, provided by AT&T and AOL’s AIM instant messaging service, is meant to enable AT&T IM Relay service customers to communicate faster while in contact with standard telephone users.
According to the mobile phone operator, users will have to log in to a specialized AIM interface designed to work with an Internet connection on a PC or on wireless devices. “A specially-trained relay operator reads IMs to hearing callers and types IMs which are displayed - in real time - to the end user. The new service is offered at no additional charge to customers who register with AT&T Relay Services,” the carrier says.
The new real time IM feature shows each word as it is typed, and does not make users wait for the relay operator to type a full phrase. Basically, the AT&T Real Time IM is expected to provide an experience similar to the one hearing customers have when talking on the phone. Through an Internet connection and an AIM account, users can IM the phone number they want to call to the screen name “attrelay.”
"It’s great to see AT&T leading the way as the first IM Relay provider to offer real time services," said David Liu, senior vice president, Global Messaging, AOL. "This generates added value for customers who rely on the service to keep them connected with friends, family, and business contacts. And, it means that conversations flow more naturally, and move more quickly for the parties on both sides of the conversation."
People with Hearing and Speech Loss, AT&T states, can benefit from three services from AT&T at the moment, including AT&T IM Relay, launched in early 2009, AT&T Video Relay Service (VRS), available since 2003 (uses an Internet connection and a web camera to connect via a Video Interpreter) and AT&T TTY Relay Service, available since 1987, (through a special device on a phone line, with a keyboard and screen, calls are connected to voice users via a Communication Assistant).