03/11/96 PICK UP THE PHONE AND GO SURFING

PICK UP THE PHONE AND GO SURFING

FOR ALL ITS EXPLOSIVE GROWTH, THE INTERNET'S WORLD Wide Web reaches only those people who have PCs and a robust connection to the Internet--less than 5% of the U.S. population. But soon, you'll be able to surf the Web--parts of it, at least--through a plain old telephone.
On Mar. 4, NetPhonic Communications Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., plans to announce the Web-On-Call Voice Browser. It's software that enables a Web-server computer to read the text on its Web pages to telephone callers. Using their keypads, callers can browse through menus presented by the server's voice synthesizer--a necessary add-on--and select the pages they're interested in. Hyperlinks to other pages in the same server can be acted on by entering the appropriate menu numbers. Callers can also get pages faxed or E-mailed to them or sent via snail mail. Although the software won't be ready for shipping until mid-'96, NetPhonics plans to have a trial version available at its Web site (www. netphonic.com) by Mar. 4.
EDITED BY JOHN W. VERITY