News.com and WSJ on PSINet VoIP announcement
news.com
By Erich Luening
Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM
July 28, 1998, 7:30 a.m. PT
In an effort to mine a new niche beyond its usual
data-networking market, Internet service provider
PSINet today rolled out a new suite of
voice-over-Internet protocol services for large
corporate customers.
PSIVoice, a set of voice-over-IP services for
making phone calls using the Internet, challenges
traditional phone line services by offering cheaper
calls over the Web, the company claims.
The company said the services are targeted at large
companies looking to shave their long-distance
telephone costs.
The suite is made up of
three separate services.
Due to ship today, the
iPEnterprise component
is a service that provides
companies with private
branch exchanges, or
internal corporate phone networks, that supply
voice services for a flat-rate price, the company
said.
"iPEnterprise is designed for companies with
branch offices, especially those that are growing
rapidly or operate widely dispersed geographic
locations. These customers need to lower their
internal communications costs in order to compete
globally," Pete Wills, PSINet's executive vice
president and chief operating officer, said in a
statement.
iPEnterprise Plus will add voice communication to
corporate extranets. PSINet's business customers
will be able to share dialing codes and other
features such as faxing, conference calling, and
unified, or universal, messaging services, the
company said.
The final service of the suite is iPGlobal which will
offer voice-over-IP services to the consumer
market next year, once the company establishes the
new product in the enterprise markets.
PSINet plans to deploy gateways throughout its
network to implement the iPGlobal service and
interconnect with the public switched network.
Using IP--the dominant transmission method for the
Net--for voice calls has several benefits, most
notably cost reductions gained by using residential
settings.
But the biggest stumbling block for voice-over-IP
services so far has been sound quality, which
currently lags traditional telephony services. ISPs
and telephony providers are developing IP-based
techology to help improve the clarity of calls made
over the Internet.
Various market researchers have pegged the
market for hardware, software, and services that
take advantage of cheaper IP-based voice
transmissions for huge growth. International Data
Corporation predicts a $20.5 billion opportunity for
carriers in the IP telephony space by the year
2002.
_________________________________________________________________
PSINet to Offer Phone Services
Through Its Internet Arteries
interactive.wsj.com
By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter, July 28, 1998
HERNDON, Va. -- PSINet Inc., looking to expand beyond its
data-network services, plans to offer telephone calls using its Internet
arteries.
PSINet shares have rocketed in recent days as investors have grown
enamored of Internet-service provider stocks. In Nasdaq Stock Market
trading Monday, PSINet fell 75 cents a share to $19.0625. That figure
represents a climb of about 35% from a week ago.
The company's latest move, expected to be announced Tuesday,
underscores the competition to traditional phone service posed by players
using Internet technology.
"This is a lower-cost alternative," said Harold "Pete" Wills, PSINet's chief
operating officer. "We can carry more traffic more efficiently." Corporate
customers could see savings of 50%, he said.
Traditional phone technology opens a dedicated connection from one
caller to another over a switched network. Internet-based voice service
breaks a call into tiny digital packets that find the most efficient route over
a data network.
Mr. Wills said calls on the PSINet services will be routed through the
company's high-speed network, assuring "toll-quality" calls.
PSINet plans to offer service between corporate customers' major
locations immediately. Next year, service will expand to allow calls to any
phone number.
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