WWTW- A World Wide Telecom Web for Developing Regions

The WWW has made information accessible to computer users in various ways not imagined before. However, there is a huge pool of people who are still untouched by this revolution and unable to join the bandwagon. These include various small businessmen, illiterate people and people, especially in developing countries, unable to afford computers. At the same time, advancements in mobile telephony technologies has led to an explosive growth and made mobile telephone as a powerful yet cheap device. This has led to an increase in the penetration of mobile devices among the masses in these developing regions. With convergence of voice and data communications, the mobile telephony user is increasingly empowered to utilize services beyond the basic voice communication. However, the benefits of data services have not yet reached their full potential and remain in the domain of enterprises rather than individual phone users. We present our vision of a World Wide Telecom Web (WWTW) – an infrastructure for hosting voice-based applications in the telecom network resulting in an information ecosystem that will complement the existing World Wide Web. The increase in the interoperability of voice and data services will further lead to a convergence between the WWW and WWTW.

Previously published as RI06010 in November 2006