Net2Phone and CommTouch Start Low-cost Internet Phone Service for Free Web Email
Users
Business Wire - January 27, 1999 08:47
HACKENSACK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 1999--In an Internet first, IP telephony pioneer Net2Phone (Nasdaq:IDTC) has linked with free
email provider CommTouch to offer low-cost PC-to-phone service directly to free web-based email subscribers. Consumers with free email accounts at
CommTouch partner web-sites can now simply click on a Net2Phone link from inside their email user interface to make inexpensive telephone calls
through the Internet to any telephone number in the world from their free web email account.
A single, unified address book in the email inbox contains both email and telephone contact information. The user can conveniently choose the most
appropriate communication option whenever they log-on to their email account.
"We have always viewed the web email account as a user's 'home' on the Internet," said CommTouch President Isabel Maxwell. "For the first time, users
have a home telephone that lets them call anyone on the planet -- and for a lot less than Ma Bell charges."
Net2Phone, a division of leading multi-national telecom carrier IDT, is a pioneering provider of Internet phone services. Substantial savings are available
to CommTouch email users who click on the Net2Phone link. Net2Phone charges just 4.9(cent) per minute for domestic calls, 10(cent) per minute for calls
to Europe and Australia, and only 20(cent) per minute for calls to Japan.
"Not only is Net2Phone the inexpensive way to make a phone call, it is now more convenient than ever," explained Jonathan Reich, Senior Vice President
of Marketing and Business Development at Net2Phone. "Whenever people send a message from their free email account, they can also choose to dial a
low-rate phone call. With an integrated email address/phone book, the user has all their options a single click away."
IDT is a leading emerging multinational carrier that combines its position as an international telecommunications operator, its experience as an Internet
service provider and its leading position in Internet telephony to provide a broad range of telecommunications services to its wholesale and retail customers
worldwide. The company provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance, pre-paid calling cards,
Internet access and, through its Net2Phone product offerings, Internet telephony services including Net2Phone Direct, Net2Fax, and Click2Talk. For
more information about IDT's Internet telephony services, please visit www.net2phone.com.
CommTouch is the leading provider of partner-branded email services, offered exclusively through the web-sites of major online consumer brand
marketers and media outlets. The CommTouch email interface is totally customizable to enhance brand awareness and customer affinity relationships.
The company partners with internationally recognized consumer-driven organizations, including Excite (Nasdaq: XCIT), Ziff-Davis (NYSE: ZD),
McGraw Hill's Business Week Magazine (NYSE: MHP), Discovery Channel Online, Nippon Telephone & Telegraph (NYSE: NTT), LookSmart,
Netopia (Nasdaq: NTPA), Hachette Multimedia, Universal Studio's animalhouse.com , the McClatchy Group's Nando.net (NYSE: MNI), The Headbone
Zone, News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) and People's Daily Joint Venture ChinaByte, and the Hollinger Group's Jerusalem Post. With more than seven years of
delivering intuitive, award-winning email software, CommTouch offers its partners a truly comprehensive turn-key email service.
Additional information about CommTouch can be obtained at its web-site (http://www.commtouch.com). Founded in 1991, CommTouch is headquartered
in Silicon Valley, California, and has a major research & development center in Ein Vered, Israel.
Except for historical information, all of the expectations and assumptions contained in the foregoing are forward-looking statements involving risks and
uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, include, but are not limited to, the
competitive environment for Internet telephony, changes of rates of all related telco rates and services, legislation that may affect the Internet telephony
industry, IDT's ability to operate the services described on a large scale commercial level. For additional information regarding these and other risks
associated with the company's business refer to the company's reports filed with the SEC.
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