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To: Iraklis who wrote (5359)	3/2/1999 11:55:00 AM
From: Nick	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10081

AT&T, Lucent, Motorola talk Internet Companies to develop new voice standard for the web By Jeffry Bartash, CBS MarketWatch Last Update: 11:36 AM ET Mar 2, 1999 Internet Daily Net Headlines NewsWatch NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Shares of AT&T, Motorola and Lucent Technologies edged higher Tuesday after the companies said they'll work together to develop a new standard that allows people to use phones to retrieve information, such as email or traffic reports, from the Internet. The companies aim to broaden the use of the Internet -- and access to it -- beyond the personal computer. The technology would allow information on the web to be read back to users. The first version of the new standard is expected to be available next month, with a final version ready for submission to the World Wide Web Consortium by the end of 1999. The consortium is responsible for approving international standards. See press release. Shares of AT&T (T) rose 3/4 to 82. Lucent (LU) blipped 5/8 higher to 103 1/2. And Motorola (MOT) gained 3/4 to 68 11/16. Standard practice The new standard is named, not coincidentally, VXTL, or Voicetext Markup Language. That's a play off the common HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) standard of most current web pages. "Just as standardization of HTML drove the adoption of traditional Web applications, standardization of VXML will drive the adoption of voice-enabled applications," said Maria Martinez, an executive at Motorola involved with Internet issues. "The VXML Forum's efforts will not only help to provide a crucial mobile component to Internet access," she said, "but will also offer Internet access to the 58 percent of people who own a telephone but don't own or have access to a computer." A common standard in important in high-tech sectors because it allows firms to develop products for a mass audience without worrying about whether they are compatible. Today on CBS MarketWatch Stocks on road to recovery Alcatel to buy Xylan for $2 billion Europe burdened by U.S. rate worries New home sales plunge 5% to 918,000 Stocks a case of bad breadth More top stories... CBS MarketWatch Columns Updated: 3/2/99 10:22:04 AM ET Consider an earlier industry, the railroads. In the 1800s, different states and different manufacturers made tracks of varying widths, which often curtailed traffic from state to state. Eventually the industry agreed on a common width, leading to higher rail traffic and stronger growth. By contrast, cellular phone operators and manufacturers worldwide have not agreed to a common standard yet, with so-called CDMA favored by many firms in the U.S. and the GSM and TDMA standards more prevalent throughout the rest of the world. As a result, cellular users with different standards cannot call each other unless they own special phones. AT&T, Lucent and Motorola said other prominent technology concerns, such as British Telecom (BT), IBM (IBM), Hewlett-Packard (HWP), Northern Telecom (NT), Unisys (UIS) and General Magic (GMGC), have agreed to support the new standard.