Good Questions Peter, FWIW, I worry a lot too. I think the major telco's have an interest in seeing some of the smaller fry survive. In this way, they won't be totally behooven to Cisco, Lucent, etc as many computer companies are to Microsoft. Witness Clarent and VocalTec being invited into AT&T interop lab project. Also, I think VocalTec can compete in the software arena - Gatekeeper, internet phone, etc. because they have the resources to do it - experience, smarts, and enough programmers to do the grunt work. In the hardware side such as gateways, the going may be a little tougher, but if they can place enough software, it will make their hardware more desireable for compatability purposes. Further, it seems they are not risking too much on hardware. Most of their initiatives seem to be joint ventures where VocalTec plugs their software into another hardware maker's product - result - win, win situation. Example, Excel, ECI telecom. Will it happen? I don't know, and am not sure, but the market will be huge, VocalTec has a great track record, and the pot-o-gold is getting closer and closer. Lot's of telco's have made preliminary committments to Vocaltec in one form or another DT, Korea, one of the Nordic telco's. We'll see...My fingers are crossed.
Regards, Dave |
