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Technology Stocks : Voice-on-the-net (VON), VoIP, Internet (IP) Telephony -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: X Y Zebra who wrote (403)	4/7/1998 10:38:00 PM
From: SteveG	Respond to of 3178

<A> IDT Responds to FCC Regulation Plan with Free Phone Calls HACKENSACK, N.J.-- Leading Internet Telephony Company to Enable Americans to Flood Congress Against VoIP Regulation with Free PC-to-Phone Calls Responding to the FCC's planned proposal to regulate Internet Telephony, IDT Corp.(NASDAQ:IDTC) today announced that it will offer free PC-to-phone calls so that Americans can lobby their congressmen to ensure low cost phone calls over the Internet. By going to www.net2phone.com, users can call their Representative, Senator, and the FCC directly and plead for low-cost phone calls, ensuring affordable communications to everyone in the U.S. "We are calling a citizen's uprising against regulation," said IDT's CEO Howard Jonas. "IDT was founded on the belief that everyone, regardless of location, socio-economic status, and time, should be able to make telephone calls, and we want to ensure that unfettered communications is available, especially in the United States." "Just as the U.S. Postal Service has not attempted to regulate e-mail, the FCC should not regulate voice over IP," said IDT's President and former Congressman Jim Courter. "In my previous visits to the FCC, I have heard nothing but encouragement and support for Internet telephony, because they firmly believed that it would help reduce international settlement rates. American rate payers export $6 billion to foreign PTTs, and Internet telephony would be an instrument to put downward pressure on these long distance rates. "I've always been encouraged by the FCC to have the technology proliferate because it serves for the betterment of the American people, and we hope that the FCC will allow the industry to flourish and give consumers the ability to communicate affordably." IDT provides Internet telephony services through: 1) Net2Phone, the first PC-to-phone service; 2) Net2Phone Direct, the first consumer Internet-based long distance service; and 3) Net2Fax, the first real-time Internet-based faxing service. IDT Corp. (NASDAQ:IDTC) is a leading emerging multinational carrier that combines its position as an international telecommunications operator, its experience as an Internet service provider and its leading position in Internet telephony to provide a broad range of telecommunications services to its wholesale and retail customers worldwide. The company provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance, Internet access and, through its Net2Phone product offerings, Internet telephony services including Net2Phone direct and Net2Fax.

To: X Y Zebra who wrote (403)	4/8/1998 9:15:00 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3178

Hi Zebe, As things stand today, some important criteria used to determine the applicability of fees are: whether the LEC's end office Class 5 switch is used to originate / terminate the call, and whether the public network data bases are used. It's not as simple as that, but that's the general idea. A separate network overlay, entirely, as you suggest? Think of the capital investments that would be required to make that work on a comparable level to today's PSTN. By the time it was built, someone would have the grand idea to institute a universal services fund for those who couldn't afford lifeline services. Teledesic and other wireless local loop alternatives could be the answer if they refrain from using the network elements I mentioned above. Not likely, tho, IMO. Not until a bifurcated means of doing directory lookups is in place, one that could meld the Internet's addressing schema with that of the ITU-defined numbering plan. Lotta work with questionable returns. Not likely in the near term. Even Moores Law cant deliver on perpetual motion, or some form of something for nothing, as I infer some VoIP enthusiasts would like to see. The logic behind such an end continues to evade me, if the end game in such a scheme is to create a service that can be given away for free... but that's a different discussion. There is no telecommunications without the expenditure of considerable energy and dollar outlays for administration and physical plant build-out. Regards, Frank Coluccio