Mr. Coluccio,
Since I did not know the answer, a little searching had to be done, and after going through the history link of the following companies:
capice.vocaltec.com (Vocaltec)
voip-connectone.com (Connect One LLC)
This company is also located in West Lake Village.....
phonezone.com (PhoneZone)
phonezone.com (Phoine Zone Tutorial)
viennasys.com (Vienna Systems)
viennasys.com (Voice/Data Integration study)
newbridge.com (Newbridge)
newbridge.com
I finally found this:
idt.net (IDTC History) Thanks to the local SI thread
I include their 'history' which seems they are very proud of their 'underground" beginnings, since no other company had such a detailed "background" information. I have included the above links so others can access the wealth of information that is out there, and what it would take to really understand this industry...
However, it seems that while it was quite an education to chase the answer to your question, it seems that old Keemo Sabi, [Sir Walter] Raleigh Baughman, beat me long ago in giving you the correct answer.
Which is IDTC. Its Chief, Mr. Howard Jonas.
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IDT: The First Five Years
Since its formation in 1990, IDT has become a leading provider of international long-distance telephone and Internet access services.
Well known for his pioneering efforts in developing the international "call-back" industry, IDT's founder Howard Jonas commercialized the technology which allows callers around the world to bypass their overseas phone carriers and make international calls on a "U.S. dial-tone" and at competitive U.S. rates supplied by IDT.
In addition to call-back, IDT has also emerged as one of the fastest growing providers of Internet access here in the U.S. and abroad. We currently provide dial-up access in 44 states as well as dedicated access to corporate customers in the U.S., France, Italy, and South Korea.
Five years ago, IDT had six employees - including Mr. Jonas. As of December 1995, IDT has 290 employees serving 70,000 customers worldwide. Over the past few years, the company's tremendous growth has mirrored the explosive growth in the international telecommunications and Internet industries. Along the way, IDT's story has made for some great reading...
IDT - Recognized by the World's Most Respected Publications
The New York Times, January 9, 1992
Hot-Wiring Overseas Telephone Calls
By Anthony Ramirez
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IDT, based in a former funeral parlor in the Bronx, is a start-up company that hopes it has a very big idea: allowing customers abroad to telephone the United States at the same low rates Americans pay to call overseas.
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<Picture>The company's 35-year-old founder, Howard Jonas, is as straightforward as the company's name. An energetic entrepreneur who also runs a larger company that publishes brochures for hotels, Mr. Jonas believes he has stumbled upon a kind of telecommunications jujitsu, using the weight and strength of the phone giants against them.
Mr. Jonas has found a way to give overseas callers an American phone line, letting them make the $18 call at $5 American rates... On a 10-minute call, during the peak American business hours, the company calculates that a German customer would pay $7.18 to an American long-distance carrier instead of $17.60 to Deutsche Bundepost Telekom, the estate-run German phone carrier...
International Herald Tribune, January 16,1992
Tapping a Low-Cost Line on Europe-to-U.S Calls
...International Discount Telecommunications began selling the service in the earnest last fall and is now building up a European distributor network. Among its 150 or so clients are such large international corporations as NBS, National Semiconductor Corp. and PepsiCo Inc. Smaller, independent businesses such as law firms and investment advisers are also users of the service, which costs $250 a month....The European phone monopolies are not happy about the service, said Mr. Jonas, who added that some of his distributors had been pressured by the local PTTs to give up working for IDT...
Wall Street Journal European Edition, June 19,1992
The Miracle of Hackensack
...The World Bank, an international aid agency, showed more guts than most multinational companies when on February 7th it signed a deal with International Discount Telecommunications for cut-price telephone calls.
...On a call from Rome to Rio de Janeiro, for instance, IDT's clients pay only $1.64 a minute. This compares with 4,917 lire ($4.10) a minute charged by Italcable, Italy's state-controlled telephone company. For big users, such reductions add up to big savings, more than enough to offset IDT's $150-250 month subscription...
Forbes, May 24, 1993
Dial H for Hustle
Howard Jonas has put together a smart little business arbitraging international phone rates. But now mighty AT&T is breathing down his neck....Now 36, Jonas has branched into a different kind of communication business. Working from an old AT&T central office in Hackensack, New Jersey, he runs a sort of guerrilla telephone outfit called IDT. Its business - arbitraging international phone calls.
...It's a nice little business. With over 1,000 customers in about 60 countries , Jonas says he takes in more than $400,000 a month. He says IDT started making money last December.
The Economist, June 4th 1994
Slipping Through the Net
The Internet is supposed to be a worldwide democracy... In reality, however, access to the Internet is by no means global. In about 100 countries, usually with a poor record on human rights, local "gateways" to the Internet are guarded by governments, and censored to ensure that nothing untoward gets into the wrong hands. In theory, that should not stop a Chinese hacker from dialing into the Internet via, say, an American gateway. In practice the expense of international calls from developing countries, plus the cost of the gateway service, makes it almost impossible. Which is where Mr. Jonas comes in.
...The success of his "call-back" business led Mr. Jonas to offer direct-dial (rather than call-back) international and long-distance services in America, at equally large discounts; it has also launched cheap fax-transmission services in Europe. The firm now handles roughly 100,000 calls a day. AT&T , which has long tried to put minnows such as IDT out of business, hates Mr. Jonas more than ever...Mr. Jonas has now devised a call-back service to let overseas hackers reach his free Internet gateway at cheap American rates.
Now you can understand why IDT is the "most hated company in the telecommunications industry" - hated by foreign telephone monopolies, but loved by its customers.
<Picture>
c 1997 IDT. All rights reserved.
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by the way, I am not really a mortician.
z. |
