IBM's India Research Laboratory (IRL) may develop a “Spoken Web” project that would offer voice-based Internet access to users who are not able to read or write or those who do not have access to the Web. The initiative would make use of the fast-paced spread of mobile phones in developing countries, such as India, Computer World UK reported Monday.

"The penetration of the PC and the Internet is not as high as that of the mobile phone, so we want to ensure that everything that is done on a web browser on a PC can be done with a mobile phone," said IRL director Guruduth Banavar.

IBM predicted that potential users of the technology would include local businesses like farmers or grocery stores that would use it to gather information relevant to their commerce.

“The Spoken web technology will enable local communities to create and disseminate locally relevant content, and interact with e-commerce sites using the spoken word over the telephone instead of the written word,” Computer World UK reported.

Technologies like VoiceXML (Voice eXtensible Markup Language) and HSTP (hyper speech transfer protocol) will be used to provide users with a telecommunications network in which they can visit “VoiceSites”, “VoiceLinks” and have business transactions. The network may be accessible through a toll-free number, either through a voice recognition system or a “tone phone”, according to Computer Word UK. A set of templates from the server may also be used to build a VoiceSite.

VoiceSites may be joined to the Web, but Web sites will have to be transformed in order to support the vocal interfaces.

To launch the initiative, the support of various firms and financial support may be needed, Banavar said. The project is currently being put to a test run with “undisclosed” mobile network providers, such as those dealing with “visually impaired users," Computer Word UK reported.