Apparently, it looks like that 6.9 million type A NTOP share allotment is going over to WinStar ... (20% per year) ... it also looks like it represents a build out of ntop to wi-fi services, and not simply IDT supplying services thru its network to add on to what ntop will do for tier 2 cable msos ....
The agreement i found said WinStar was getting the 6.9 million shares, in return for services. There wasn't any context indicating a split, with some shares to another unit of IDT and the rest to WinStar.
From that recent Business Week article re NTOP, VOIP regulation, and the following, per Greenberg:
"Q: This decision only dealt with a very specific business model, PC-to-PC calls, which your company pioneered, so it must be good news for you.
A: We were the first to offer the PC-to-PC model, in 1995. And while we still offer this service, it accounts for only a tiny amount of our revenue. We now also offer a slew of [other] services: PC to phone, phone to phone, and fax to phone. Soon, we'll be offering voice over Wi-Fi -- wireless fidelity -- which people can access from their laptops or PDAs [personal digital assistants]."
messages.yahoo.com
finance.messages.yahoo.com
business-times.asia1.com.sg
Wi-Fi phones lack carrier support
Service providers worry about cannibalizing revenue
By Ben Charny
Updated: 7:32 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2004
msnbc.msn.com
On Monday, Nokia said its Communicator 9500, due at year's end, will be able to use Cisco Aironet access points usually found in corporations and hotels, as well as in executive lounges in airports and train stations. The world's largest handset maker joins Motorola, which is building a cell phone that uses Wi-Fi chips from Texas Instruments.
Wi-Fi phone proponents say the phones combine two complementary wireless technologies. Wi-Fi is fast, but has only a 300-foot range and can be used for downloading large amounts of information. Meanwhile, cellular networks stretch for hundreds of miles but can usually only manage download speeds of about 50kbps (kilobits per second) to 500kbps.
But Wi-Fi phones are missing crucial supporters: the wireless carriers that sell the phones.
Deutsche Bank Securities analyst Brian Modoff said carriers face challenges in switching between the two different wireless networks and properly handling the complex billing. While handset makers predict an early 2005 launch of the technology, Modoff and others expect it will take longer for these devices to get the full backing of carriers.
"I cannot imagine the number of quality-of-service issues that would come from trying to do wireless local area network handoffs," Modoff said. "Who's responsible? How do you bill? What is the wireless local area network pricing?"
But he also believes some carriers will inevitably jump in. "The carriers feel that they must be at the front end of whatever tech happens to be hot," he added.
Some carriers are already warming up to the technology. In a recent speech to analysts, Nextel Communications Chief Technology Officer Barry West said Wi-Fi phones could prove to be key to stealing away more business from local wireline phone companies. Meanwhile, Japanese cell phone service provider NTT DoCoMo has developed a test version of a Wi-Fi phone that's meant for a high-speed wireless network.
Wi-Fi phones armed with the appropriate software could ultimately use a home's Wi-Fi access point to make phone calls using the Internet, technology known as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). That lets them accomplish something that cell phone service providers have been trying to do for years: replace the local landline phone company.
"I see an opportunity to attack the regional Bell operating companies," West said.
VoIP calls over a home broadband connection can be made for free or at prices that are sometimes half of what it costs to make a cell phone call. So why would a cell phone service provider want to sell or host such a service that has the potential to eat into more of its own revenue?
"Cannibalism in this business is inevitable," West said. |
