Excerpts of the article from © The Wall Street Journal

By SHARON CLEARY

Suddenly, telephones are among the hottest Internet-access devices around.

A growing number of companies are coming up with ways to turn ordinary phones into Internet appliances. With only a telephone, consumers can now dial a toll-free number and use their voice to request information from the Web, including traffic reports and sports scores. The new services, known as voice portals, use improved voice-recognition and speech-synthesis software to allow consumers to hear online information without a personal computer.

One promising effort is a Los Angeles-based start-up called HeyAnita Inc., conceived by four former Microsoft Corp. executives in a Hollywood, Calif., diner. The team congregated daily at a blue vinyl corner booth to discuss their new, post-Microsoft business. They knew the company would offer Internet-based information aurally over the phone, but they didn't know what to name it. They found inspiration in their customary waitress, Anita.

"She knew everything," says Sanjeev Kuwadekar, the company's 42-year old chief executive officer and co-founder, who developed business partnerships for Microsoft for eight years before leaving in 1999. "She could answer questions about surf reports and stock prices" -- two key interests the four founders share. They decided to name the company HeyAnita in the hope that its phone-based service would be as helpful and friendly to callers as Anita had been to them.

Mr. Kuwadekar considers the name a good-luck charm. The charm may come in handy, because HeyAnita's competition is stiff.

...

HeyAnita is focusing on the international market. That's because the phone will become the cheapest access to the Web in countries where few people have personal computers. The company plans to introduce its service in China, India, Australia, South Korea and Japan. A staff of 55 people -- a greater number than in the company's Los Angeles headquarters -- is currently working in Seoul, South Korea. Since many South Koreans already use wireless phones, HeyAnita's founders think it will readily embrace a voice portal. Also, the founders believe Korea will be a good springboard to China and Japan.

Under a recent revenue-sharing agreement, Korea Telecom Corp. runs a Korean-language version of HeyAnita's service over its phone lines throughout the country. When Korea Telecom customers use HeyAnita's service, the U.S. company receives a per-minute fee.

HeyAnita also plans to launch its service in the U.S. this fall. It chose SpeechWorks International, the voice-recognition software maker in which AOL has a stake, to develop voice-recognition software in languages other than English. Most voice-portal services are supported by software from Speechworks, or competitors Nuance Communications Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif., and Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands.

...

Where's Anita? Sadly for company founders, HeyAnita's namesake has gone on to bigger and brighter things. She moved on to a budding acting career -- she doesn't yet know that HeyAnita users are about to call her number, so to speak.

-- Ms. Cleary is a staff reporter for WSJ.com in San Francisco.

Write to Sharon Cleary at sharon.cleary[!]wsj.com