IDT/Net2Phone in the press -Providence Journal by: drillseeker
Cybertalk Service improves Internet telephony
The Providence Journal
It was just two years ago that the talk of the Internet was how
to talk over the Internet. That is, using your computer and
the Internet, instead of the telephone, to make phone calls.
By downloading some free software and using the standard
equipment shipped with most PCs, Internet users could
converse with each other by talking into a small microphone
and listening on headsets or speakers. Their voices would
travel mostly over the Internet, instead of through the
traditional telephone network.
The appeal was obvious: it didn't cost anything beyond the
standard monthly fee for Internet access to make these calls.
That is still true today, but Internet phone calling has yet to
take off. Even though the software has been freely available,
and technology has improved, it is far from being widely
used.
Why?
Jeff Pulver, the author of a book about how to make Internet
phone calls, said in an interview this week that the Internet is
still not well suited to carry live conversations.
"The quality is predictably unpredictable," he said.
"Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's not."
Here's how it works: Your voice is translated into digital bits
of information and sent - just like E-mail and Web pages - in
separate packets through the Internet. But those packets may
take different routes and arrive out of order, while some
packets may not arrive at all because of Internet traffic. That
means that sometimes when your voice is reassembled at the
receiving end, it might be scrambled.
Usually, Internet phone users have to pre-arrange calls to be
sure they are at their computers and online at the same time.
So it's not surprising that most calls made over the Internet
are, as Pulver puts it, "nerd to nerd."
But Internet telephony is hardly a lost cause. One
communications company betting on the technology is [ IDT
Corp. ] , based in Hackensack, N.J. IDT offers a service that
overcomes the requirement that both callers have computers
connected to the Internet.
It's called Net2Phone and it allows someone with an Internet
connection and a computer to call a regular telephone.
IDT serves as a gateway for the service. When you place the
call over the Internet, you connect to IDT's computer which
then routes it through the traditional telephone network.
The software is free, but the service is not. In January, the
company lowered its rates for domestic calls to 4.9 cents a
minute, about half the cost of the best rates offered by the
major long-distance carriers. Net2Phone calls to other
countries can run as much as 90 percent less than traditional
calls, according to the company.
I tried the service this week and indeed it did work. The
program's main window looks like the face of a cellular
phone: there's a keypad, call and hang up buttons and a small
window that shows the number you're dialing. You dial by
clicking on a keypad or by typing the numbers on the
keyboard.
The service allows you to make toll-free calls without paying
anything.
But I found the program wouldn't operate properly on my
computer at The Journal, presumably because of a "firewall"
that protects the newspaper's network from hackers.
Dialing out with [ America Online ] , the program worked,
but barely. I tried calling the IDT's customer service number
and heard only fragments of the call: A brief ringing sound,
then " . . . assisting other cust . . . " Finally I couldn't hear
anything.
My experience was better using a computer connected to
Cox@@Home, the high-speed Internet service offered by [
Cox Communications ] . I had no trouble placing calls and
my first was to the IDT customer service number. The sound
of the phone ringing was surprisingly clear, as was the voice
of the representative that answered.
"How do I sound?," I asked.
"You sound fine, sir," he answered. "You might want to
back off the microphone a little."
On subsequent calls, the person on the other end reported
there was a lot of static and my voice cut in and out at times.
There was an awkward delay of about a second between
exchanges, a lot like delays in an overseas call. The quality
on my end was good - similar to a typical cellular phone
conversation.
IDT also offers a phone-to-phone service (no computer
needed) that places your calls over the Internet for as little as
5 cents a minute.
It's clearly more convenient to use your telephone to make
phone calls. But Internet phone calling is bound to become
more popular, especially as companies such as IDT make it
more accessible to the rest of us non-nerds.
Publication Date: March 10, 1999
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