This is the direction PERI is hopefully going with their calling card platform: (from IP telephony board of SI)
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To: Stephen B. Temple (2281 )
From: Stephen B. Temple Tuesday, Jan 12 1999 8:08AM ET
Reply # of 2357
A cubbyhole-niche?, where to look among the Evergreen______Immense !
GRIC Communications and Lucent Technologies Introduce Prepaid Internet Telephony Calling Card System for Service Providers
January 12, 1999
(BUSINESS WIRE)
1999-- GRIC Communications, Inc. and Lucent
Technologies today jointly introduced a prepaid
Internet telephony calling card system for service
providers.
GRICprepaid(TM) is a Java-based software
application that interfaces with Lucent's
PacketStar(TM) IP Telephony System (ITS) via
an enhanced Lucent-developed application
programming interface.
The system gives service providers an easy way
to bill customers for placing prepaid calls over the
Internet. In addition, a calling card enabled by
GRICprepaid provides real-time authentication,
rating, voice response and call termination via
Lucent's PacketStar ITS.
"Since Internet telephony calls are significantly
less expensive than traditional PSTN calls, the
market for IP-based international calls is growing
dramatically," said Clayton Oswald, GRIC's vice
president of marketing. "With GRICprepaid and the
Lucent PacketStar ITS, service providers have a
new source of revenue and are able to offer their
customers prepaid phone service at greatly
reduced rates."
GRICprepaid enables service providers to quickly
and efficiently set up and deliver prepaid Internet
telephony calling card services to their
customers. It provides the customer with reduced
long-distance dialing rates and the convenience
of not having to carry change or make collect
calls.
"Service providers are moving beyond voice over
IP solutions to more advanced value-added
applications such as prepaid billing solutions," said
Lov Kher, general manager, PacketStar Internet
Telephony Solutions, Lucent Technologies. "With
GRICprepaid and Lucent's PacketStar ITS, they
have this capability."
GRICprepaid includes the newest version of
Lucent's PacketStar ITS Release 2.2.1 and an
easy-to-use, Web-based interface to do all the
account, template and tariff table management.
There's also a subset of screens that allow the
system administrator to perform administrative
functions, such as checking the balance,
increasing the balance, and changing the status
of an individual account. GRICprepaid uses voice
prompts to guide users, and the prepaid cards
can be branded by the service provider.
Interpath Communications, an innovative
super-regional information and communications
service provider based in Research Triangle Park,
North Carolina, and serving the mid-Atlantic
region, is the first IP service provider in North
America to beta test GRICprepaid on the Lucent
PacketStar ITS. " This trial of GRICprepaid fits
into our Internet services approach, offering our
business customers added convenience at a
lower cost than conventional calling cards," said
Peter Borbely, executive vice president and chief
operating officer of Interpath Communications.
To assist service providers and telcos to enter
the Internet telephony business quickly and
inexpensively, Newcourt Credit's/Lucent's
Technologies Product Finance Group is offering a
suite of financial options for the
GRICprepaid/PacketStar ITS solution.
GRICprepaid supports a four-tier, distributed
server environment and is highly scaleable,
customizable and localizable. It runs on UNIX and
Windows NT platforms, and is available now.
GRICprepaid is priced at $25,000.
ABOUT LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES
Lucent Technologies designs, builds and delivers
a wide range of public and private networks,
communications systems and software, data
networking systems, business telephone systems
and microelectronics components. Bell Labs is the
research and development arm for the company.
More information about Lucent Technologies,
headquartered in Murray Hill, NJ, is available on
its Web site at lucent.com.
Additional information about Lucent's PacketStar
ITS is available at
lucent.com.
ABOUT INTERPATH COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Founded in 1998, Interpath Communications is a
fast-growing Internet information services
company that taps the power of high-speed
fiber-optic networks to provide turn-key,
Internet-based e-business services ranging from
consulting and connectivity to enterprise-scale
business applications hosting. An independently
managed subsidiary of Carolina Power & Light
(NYSE: CPL) - www.cplc.com - Interpath can be
reached at 919-890-6300 or www.interpath.net.
ABOUT GRIC COMMUNICATIONS
GRIC Communications, Inc., is the global leader in
delivering integrated, multiple IP-based services
for carriers and Internet service providers. GRIC
provides the technology that brings intelligence
to the Internet through GRIC CSP(TM)
(Convergent Services Platform). This gives over
400 service providers in the GRIC Alliance
Network(TM) an integrated, global infrastructure
for secure authentication, settlement,
provisioning, billing, network management, flexible
routing, and customer service. Individual
applications such as remote access, fax and
phone can be integrated through GRIC CSP,
giving users multiple services through a single
account and one bill. GRIC CSP also provides a
migration path to future applications such as
video conferencing and e-commerce.
The GRIC Alliance Network provides more than
3,000 POPs in 120 countries and has an
aggregate subscriber base of 30 million dial-up
users and an estimated 40 million corporate
users. Privately held, GRIC is headquartered in
Milpitas, CA, and has offices in the U.S., Asia and
Europe. For additional information, visit GRIC's
Web site at www.gric.com or call 408-955-1920. |
