Reach Out And Touch Someone, For Free (IBD, Monday, March 16, 1998)
Date: 3/16/98
Author: Stephanie Wilkinson
There's a slew of offers out there now for low-cost long-distance rates - five-cent-a-minute Sundays, flat-rate international calling and dime-a-minute all the time.
Some savvy folks, however, have found the best rate of all: zero. They're using their PCs as phones and the Internet as their long-distance carrier.
Thanks to advances in quality, standards and features, Internet telephony is booming. Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., estimates that user software and equipment for Internet service providers to allow phone calls online will be a $2 billion market by 2004.
Not only can Net calling cut your phone bills, it can provide multimedia services like videoconferencing, text-chat and shared applications. More than 30 companies offer the software needed to make calls over the Net. Their products are increasingly easy to use and are showing up in more new PCs.
''These days, it's hard to buy a computer that's not already equipped for Internet phone calling,'' said Harvey Kaufman, vice president of NetSpeak Corp., a maker of Web telephony software in Boca Raton, Fla.
That contrasts with two years ago, when you probably had to upgrade your computer to take advantage of Net telephony. Now many of the features needed are well within limits found on today's PCs: a Pentium 75-megahertz processor, 16 megabytes of memory, Windows 95 or Windows NT, a sound card that accommodates conversations, a microphone and speakers.
You'll also need a modem running at 28.8 kilobits per second or faster, and Internet access.
To get started, you need to download a telephony software package from the Web, although sometimes the software comes bundled with PCs. Some software vendors offer a basic package for free, and an advanced package with multimedia capabilities. The advanced software ranges in price from $19.95 to $49.95.
Internet Phone Release 5.0, made by VocalTec Communications Ltd. of Northvale, N.J., is currently the ''people's choice,'' winning first place in a recent survey of Internet telephony users.
The next three most popular packages in the survey were Microsoft Corp.'s NetMeeting, a voice-and-video package called CU-SeeMe from White Pine Software Inc. in Nashua, N.H., and VoxPhone by Voxware Inc. in Princeton, N.J.
Many of the earlier bugaboos of Internet calling have been reduced or eliminated. You used to be able to complete a call over the Net only to other PC users with the same software. Now if your software uses a new standard known as ''H-323,'' it will work with any other similarly labeled software.
Directory services is another problem slowly being worked out. There still is no way to look up every person who has Internet phone calling capabilities, and many vendors offer directories only of those using their software. But Yahoo Inc.'s Four11 service maintains an integrated directory for the leading Internet phone-package users.
One breakthrough on the way is PC-to-phone calling. Many Internet service providers are installing gateways that allow you to place a call from your PC and reach anyone who has a phone. Because a portion of your call still travels over the Internet, your calling costs still are much lower.
Another sticking point has been sound quality. Voice traffic over the Internet gets cut up into little packets, some of which may get dropped or delayed as they travel across the network. This can create distorted sound, gaps in transmission, garbling and echoes.
''Sound on the open Internet is best described as 'predictably unpredictable,' '' said Jeff Pulver, president of Pulver.com, a market research firm based in Melville, N.Y.
But software makers say they are making improvements to compensate for the Internet's quirks.
The people who'll be happiest with end- to-end Internet calling are those who need to get around the high cost of international dialing. There are also those who want to use the Internet as their party line or as a live audio version of text-based chat rooms.
Some corporations also are thinking that Internet callers may boost their sales. Web vendors ranging from travel agents to clothing catalogs are looking into ways to equip their sites with call buttons. Clicking on that button would connect you to the company call center, where agents could answer questions about products, take orders or direct you to other sites.
''This is the way the technology will really hit the mainstream,'' Pulver said.
Finally, there's a brand-new way to use the Internet as your long-distance carrier - without a PC. Innomedia Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., recently shipped a $199 device called Infotalk. This book-sized box plugs in between your phone and wall jack.
You and the person you're calling must both be equipped with an Infotalk box, and both must have Internet accounts. You establish the call first by dialing the person in the normal fashion from your phone. Once connected, a touch of the phone's pound key prompts Infotalk to take over.
''You pay for the first minute of the call,'' said Jay Blazensky, director of marketing at Innomedia. ''The rest is all free.'' |
