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Microcap & Penny Stocks : FRANKLIN TELECOM (FTEL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill France who wrote (25125)	1/14/1998 1:40:00 PM
From: Brian Dittmer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41046

This on Internet Telephony for Europe... Internet Phone Not Subject To EU Restrictions By Suzanne Perry BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Services that allow consumers to make phone calls over the Internet are not yet sophisticated enough to fall under European Union rules on voice telephone, the European Commission said. However, once technology improves, Internet service providers could be subject to the same licensing and public service obligations as competing phone companies, the EU executive added. "The current position of voice communications on Internet under (EU) law may change in the light of further technical and market developments," it said in a notice published in the EU's Official Journal. Furthermore, the Commission said, Internet phone calls should be open to full competition even in countries that have not yet liberalized their voice telephone market. Internet voice communications -- which allow users to make long-distance and international calls for the price of local calls -- are still in an embryonic state but are expected to take off once the quality improves. Germany's Deutsche Telekom announced in December that it planned to offer phone services via the Internet in 1998, one of the first big telecoms companies to embrace the technology. The Commission's notice aims to clarify whether such services fall under EU rules on voice telephony." Those rules allow national governments, for example, to require companies to obtain special licenses and to contribute to universal service" funds aimed at sharing out the cost of providing basic phone service to less profitable customers. The Commission said Internet calls -- between two personal computers (PCs) equipped with microphones, two traditional telephones or a computer at one end and a telephone at the other -- did not yet fit the EU definition of voice telephony. It said they were generally offered as an add-on feature for subscribers using the Internet for other reasons, rather than as a separate profit-making activity. Furthermore, early technology does not allow phone calls to be made as quickly and reliably as traditional ones. "The time period required for processing and transmission from one termination point to the other is generally still such that it cannot be considered as of the same quality as a standard real-time service," it said. When Internet services are offered only to subscribers whose computers are connected and are using compatible software, or if Internet access is obtained over leased lines, they cannot be considered "voice telephony," the Commission said. The Commission said it would review the situation again before January 1, 2000.