3 Firms Will Develop Net Software Language

AT&T; Corp., Motorola Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc. said they have formed an alliance to create a software language that will let phone users call and have Internet information read to them. The firms expect to unveil the first version of specifications for the language next month and to submit the final version for approval by the World Wide Web Consortium by year-end. The alliance is aimed at expanding Internet use beyond the PC. The alliance combines separate voice-recognition projects already underway at AT&T;, the No. 1 U.S. long-distance phone company; Lucent, the world’s leading phone-equipment maker; and at Motorola, the No. 2 cell phone maker. The project is being called Voice eXtensible Markup Language, or VXML, Forum.