Brief: Need Cash? Texting Service Locates ATMs

Need to find an ATM machine? No problem. A new cell phone service from MasterCard provides cardholders with a mobile, location-based search and directory service so they can request to have the location of the nearest ATM sent to their cellular phone via anSMS text message. Customers call 1-877-FIND-ATM and provide their location to request the whereabouts of the nearest MasterCard ATM.

Provided by MasterCard to cardholders free of charge, the new service works will all major mobile carriers in the U.S. Carrier text message rate may apply. The voice-activated ATM Locator application is provided by Convergys Corporation, which built the application for MasterCard. Hosted on Convergys' SpeechPort 'platform, incoming calls are received and processed.

The platform uses a variety of speech recognition technologies to detect the caller's request and play back the appropriate information. It then sends the caller's coordinates to MasterCard, which in turn accesses and provides ATM locations from a central data bank.

If callers request an SMS, MasterCard passes the ATM location data to mobile message and data service company Mobile 365, which in turn routes the SMS text message to the caller's mobile carrier.