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

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (542)	5/15/1998 6:34:00 AM
From: Brad W.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3178

All; Government will not tax the internet for some years. This is great news for IDTC, VOCLF, and others that have had a cloud over them for the last few months. allpolitics.com Brad W.

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (542)	5/16/1998 11:18:00 AM
From: elk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3178

Frank, sorry it took a bit to get back to you. As for the FNET minutes, until more details are announced tough to say. This one took me by suprise, as to the location. When the International POPs were mentioned in last month's release as being the first priority for FNET, I had thought along the WorldCom lines, and the agreements they have signed in Europe, thinking that FNET would begin their deployment utilizing the Collocation agreement. Or going back to the Sept Globalcom announcement, where South America is mentioned, that was the next place I looked, but FNET has a new management team, and they are clearly doing it their way, and that works very well for me. MacGruder seems to be very agressive, and that is exactly the kind of leadership necessary for a service based company, or at least more so than a Manufacturing company, IMO. A topic of much debate for FTEL has been the length of time that their DVGs have been evaluated. Many feel that the current time frame, possibly entering into the sixth month for some, has been too long. FTEL targetted F500 co.'s who have requested several new features/capabilities. This has naturally been a long testing process, but what I am wondering is out of the ordinary for companies of this size, deciding if and with whom they will make such a major telecommunications switch to take this long. Also what would a total commitment mean for a multi naional company to convert their existing service, either in part or in total to VoIP. There is much more than just purchasing a gateway, and plugging it in. Billing tracking/routing are all issues that are technologically addressed as part of the solution, but there are corporate adjustments necessary, especially in their approach and handling of the new technology. If anyone has some thoughts, and Frank I understand that you may not want to give some free consulting out<GGGG>, about the following, though not specifically for FTEL, but rather in the vein of a problem that all the gateway manuf.'s could experience: A. Hidden costs B. Infrastructure issues C. Administrative adjustments, both in managements actual tasks, but equally IMO in perception and 'attitude', for lack of a better word, but then again I am just getting into the first cup of the morning<G> D. the other items that would be necessary It seems to be that besides the psychological barrier of going first, there may also be a factor of the corporations, not understanding the full magnitude, as many investors in this sector, including myself, of what it takes on all levels, to implement this technology, due to recent arrival. Frost and Sullivan predicted that there would be 200 million dollars worth of Gateway sales this year, and to date not much of that has been realized. Look forward to hearing fom everyone! (For all interested in the topic of Co-location, take a look at a company Abovenet: abovenet.com They may be a Public company as early as 3rdQ, they specialize in Co-Location and are trying to building a set of sites, for one hop low latency connections, for all Internet related services, Including VoIP. Let's contact a gateway manuf., co-locate with Abovenet, and light up our network!<GGG> Just kidding, who wants to really bother filing all those FCC petitions?<GGG>)