Talk Is Cheap On The Net
By Margie Semilof
Los Angeles
5:10 p.m. EST Fri., Feb. 27, 1998
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Two discount carriers this week announced initiatives in IP telephony
that give some users a low cost alternative to the traditional long
distance networks.
IDT Corp. Hackensack, N.J., said it will drop its Internet calling rates
to .05 cents per minute on domestic calls for customers using
Net2Phone Direct, the company's phone-to-phone Internet service.
Separately, Justice Internet Corp. a Los Angeles carrier, said it will
begin offering Internet calling service to Korea, Japan and Taiwan on
April 1.
Both companies have a shared heritage as call-back carriers, which
let customers who want to call a destination to first route that call
through one of the carrier's servers. The call back carrier charges a
lower rate to complete the call than if the caller dialed the destination
directly.
For example, if a customer in Brazil wants to call Switzerland it might
cost $5 dollars a minute. By dialing the call-back server the call from
Brazil is reoriginated at that server. The call is completed to
Switzerland at only .26 cents per minute, company officials said.
"Everyone is looking for less expensive ways to make international
calls, particularly since the financial crisis in Asia," said Marc
Haimsohn, international sales manager at Justice.
Justice does not yet have a domestic IP service.
Haimsohn said the carrier's customers are mostly embassies, large
export companies, banks and hotels. To use the service, customers
need a PC, a Nortel Micom Phone/Fax IP Gateway, and at least 64
kbps of access service. |
