Dow Jones Online News Bashes ETEL
____________________________________________
Dow Jones Online News, Tuesday, June 22, 1999 at 17:58
By Paula L. Stepankowsky, Staff Reporter
LONGVIEW, Wash. -(Dow Jones)- Shares of E-Net Inc. doubled in value
in extremely heavy trading Tuesday after the company said it formed a
unit to allow customers to make phone calls over the Internet.
E-Net (ETEL) shares closed up $3.187 at $6.375, doubling the stock's
value, on volume of 12.9 million shares. Average daily volume is about
157,300 shares.
E-Net, a Germantown, Md.-based company specializing in Internet
telephone products, announced earlier that it had formed a
voice-over-Internet protocol unit, ZeroPlus.com Inc., to provide
customers with software and their own permanent online phone numbers for
free Internet calling services. The company said in the future, it also
will include fee-based services for the consumer market using its
technology.
But Herbert Tinger, senior vice president of technology research at
FAC Equities, said while the announcement is interesting, the service is
still limited because both parties must be logged on to their computers
and the Internet, and have the company's special software running in
order for the call to go through.
Tinger said a number of other companies have provided similar
services for some time, and that this type of Internet service isn't yet
poised to challenge traditional long-distance carriers.
"It's great for gear-heads who are logged on all day," Tinger said.
"But it's a limited opportunity and a limited market - it's limited to
people who are online."
- Paula L. Stepankowsky; 360-636-2008
Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
|
