IDT in PC Magazine
Calling on the Net: Net2Phone brings Internet telephony into the price race with
conventional telephony.
Bruce Brown
02/09/99
PC Magazine
The quality of software-based PC-to-telephone connections via the Internet
has improved, but aggressive pricing by conventional telephone service
networks has limited the savings of PC-based Internet telephony, at least
for domestic U.S. calls. A new pricing structure for IDT Corp.'s Net2Phone
PC 9.0 (a free download from www. net2phone .com), effective January 1,
1999, drops the cost of U.S. domestic calls to an around-the-clock 4.9 cents a
minute, and ups the ante.
To start using Net2Phone PC 9.0, you download and install the software and plug
a microphone and speakers into your PC's sound card jacks. You then register
and set up a credit card-based account. With a half-duplex sound card, you must
click on an on-screen button to talk and release it to
listen; using a full-duplex sound card, a new capability with this version,
the experience is closer to that of conventional telephony.
Net2Phone PC 9.0 lets you call any conventional phone in the world using a
PPP Internet connection. Voice quality isn't as good as with conventional
phone service; the quality of a call depends on the caller's PC system
resources and on the speed and quality of the IP connection.
In testing from a variety of phone systems, PC-to-phone calls were
consistently understandable; minor echoes, breaks, and variations were
common though not constant. Earlier Internet telephony often suffered from
annoying delays; these were not noticeable with Net2Phone PC 9.0.
According to IDT , 80 percent of Net2Phone PC 9.0 customers have been from
outside the U.S. The previous price structure did not offer much advantage in the
U.S., but the new price will make the slight voice quality trade-off worthwhile.
IDT offers two other consumer products with compelling pricing structures.
Net2Phone Direct, which uses the Internet to transmit calls between
conventional telephones without requiring the use of PCs, costs 5 cents per
minute for domestic calls. Click2Talk, a Web commerce telephony tool, lets
you place a call via your PC to a Web site company representative for
information about products or service, at no cost to either party.
Internet telephony is enjoying incremental increases in voice quality and
drastic decreases in price. The bottom line: You can save money by using the
Internet to make phone calls.
Net2Phone PC 9.0. Free download. Requires: 8MB RAM; 4.3MB hard disk
space; Microsoft Windows 3.x, 95, 98, or NT 4.0 or later;
IDT Corp., Hackensack, NJ; 800-438-8879; www.net2phone .com
FULL-DUPLEX CALLING: Make simultaneous two-way calls with Net2Ph |
