America Online Announces Three-Year Internet Telephony Agreement With Net2Phone for AOL Instant Messenger
December 2, 1999 08:31 AM
DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 1999--
Services to Enable AIM Users to Place and Receive Calls Between Computers, Phones and Fax Machines
Global Phenomenon Continues to Grow as AOL Instant Messenger Surpasses 37 Million Registered Users
America Online AOL , the world's leading interactive services company, today announced a three-year agreement with Net2Phone, Inc. NTOP , the leading provider of Internet telephony services, that will provide AOL Instant Messenger(TM) (AIM) users with Net2Phone-powered Internet telephony communications services.
Under the terms of the agreement, America Online will work with Net2Phone to create AIM-branded Internet telephony products and services, including an AIM-branded card that offers AIM users low-cost Internet Telephony. These new products and services will bring low-cost, convenient communications services to the more than 37 million AIM users and allow them to place and receive telephone calls in a number of different ways:
PC-to-Phone: This option will allow an AIM user to place a call from his or her Internet-enabled PC to another telephone user listening and speaking through a traditional telephone;
Phone-to-PC: This option will allow an AIM user to place a call from a traditional phone to another user's Internet enabled PC (equipped with standard computer speakers and a microphone);
Conference Calling: Multiple callers on a single call, accessing via phones or PC clients;
PC-to-Fax and Fax-to-PC: Documents on a PC can be sent to fax machines. Through the AIM client, the user can also receive and view faxes from a fax machine.
Barry Schuler, President of AOL Interactive Services, said, "With this agreement, we are significantly building the tremendous value of our popular AOL Instant Messenger product that is revolutionizing online communications. Combining instant messaging with spoken conversation will bring even more convenience to our AOL Instant Messenger users."
AOL Instant Messenger recently surpassed 37 million registered users -- up from 10 million in November 1998 -- and continues to show staggering growth with approximately 700,000 registrations per week. The average AIM user spends approximately 2.5 - 3 hours on the service each day and peak simultaneous usage recently surpassed 700,000 users. According to Media Metrix, AIM is the number one ranked chat application with a more than 27 percent share of the marketplace. Today, the Buddy List Network of AOL and AIM users includes more than 75 million members who send approximately 720 million messages a day. AOL Instant Messenger users can communicate with friends, family and colleagues on AOL and vice-versa.
The AIM Internet telephony services will be available to anyone with an AOL Instant Messenger registration, standard computer speakers and a microphone. In addition to its agreement with Net2Phone, AOL, Inc. has agreements with Apple, Lycos, TV Guide, IBM, RealNetworks, Apple, EarthLink, MindSpring, Juno and Novell to develop and launch co-branded versions of AOL Instant Messenger.
Mr. Schuler added: "These exciting new services promise to make the AOL Instant Messenger service even more central to people's everyday lives. And, once we extend the AOL Instant Messenger service to mobile devices beyond the PC -- as part of our 'AOL Anywhere' strategy -- these new communications services will provide even more convenience and value."
Net2Phone also has an existing four-year agreement to provide Internet telephony services for America Online's ICQ service, which has more than 50 million register users, and a two-year agreement to provide Internet telephony calling card services for the CompuServe service. AOL, Inc. and Net2Phone will also work together to develop open standards for IP telephony. |
