NTT Com Entertainment Service Rates Voice Impersonators

TOKYO, JAPAN – NTT Communications (NTT Com) announced today the immediate launch of a mobile entertainment service in Japan that rates people’s vocal abilities to impersonate popular comedians and famous lines from movies, as well as animal calls, dialect accents and other sounds using their mobile phones.

Named Mane-1GP (mane in Japanese means “impersonation”), the service uses an algorithmically driven engine to evaluate a person’s mimicking ability in terms of speed, sound pressure, intonation, voiceprint and voice quality. The user’s voice is compared against an original recording, which the user selects and then attempts to impersonate while speaking into their mobile phone.

The service, which works with most mobile phones from Japanese mobile operators NTT DOCOMO, au or SoftBank Mobile, is accessible without registration at the mobile site http://mane-1gp.com/mb (Japanese only). An average call costs about 10 to 20 yen.

It is possible to hold group competitions in which each person’s score is recorded and then ranked against the other participants.

Popular comedians will demonstrate the service at LIVE STAND 2010 OSAKA, a stand-up comedian festival to be held in Osaka from October 15 to 17. The event will be viewable at http://mane1-co.jp (Japanese only).

About NTT Communications Corporation

NTT Communications provides a broad range of global networks, management solutions and IT services to customers worldwide. The company is renowned for reliable, high-quality security, hosting, voice, data and IP services, as well as expertise in managed networks and leadership in IPv6 transit technology. NTT Communications’ extensive infrastructure includes Arcstar™ Global IP-VPN and Global e-VLAN, as well as a Tier-1 IP backbone reaching more than 150 countries in partnership with major Internet service providers, and secure data centers in Asia, North America and Europe. NTT Communications is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, one of the world’s largest telecoms with listings on the Tokyo, London and New York stock exchanges. Please visit www.ntt.com/index-e.html.