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Microcap & Penny Stocks : DGIV-A-HOLICS...FAMILY CHIT CHAT ONLY!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scottoo who wrote (11810)	6/8/1998 3:21:00 PM
From: Rick Jamison	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50264

Here's another piece to your puzzle Rocketeer1. The picture is getting clearer. Internet Telephony Services Challenge Telecom Industry - IDC June 8, 1998 LONDON, ENGLAND, Newsbytes via NewsEdge Corporation : In a report released this morning by International Data Corp. (IDC), the information technology (IT) research firm says that the arrival of new and low cost Internet telephony services are starting to challenge the conventional telecommunications carriers. As a result of this, IDC says, there is a need for the carriers to respond, especially in Europe, where telecommunications costs are higher than in the competitive US marketplace. IDC notes that the high level of interest in Net telephony is unsurprising given the potential of the technology -- both to allow new players to enter the market for basic telephony and also to enable new value-added applications using the convergence of telephony with the Internet. In the US, IDC notes, a number of next-generation telecommunication carriers are already challenging the traditional carriers with low cost Internet telephony services. In Europe, on the other hand, barely six months ago there had been little activity in the area of public IP (Internet Protocol) telephony services beyond the testing of the technology and one or two public trials by carriers such as Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Finland. "The situation is now changing with a small number of commercial services up and running from next-generation telcos and Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs) such as Delta Three, Glocalnet, and POPTEL, while a number of Internet service providers (ISPs) are also planning to launch services within the next few months," explained Scott Moore, a research analyst with IDC's European Telecommunications Services. "However, the clearest signs yet of the adoption of Internet telephony in Europe have been the announcements by Deutsche Telekom, Swisscom, Telenor, and Telia of the launch of IP telephony services before the end of 1998," he said. According to IDC, one of the most significant inhibiting factors to the introduction of Internet telephony services has been the issue of voice quality. However, the firm notes, advances in technology and the use of managed networks now enable operators to offer services with voice quality equal to that of GSM (global system for mobile communications) cellular services, allowing them to enter price sensitive sectors of the residential market. On the other side of the equation, the report says, there are a number of driving factors for IP telephony. At the moment the most important is cost, which will gradually disappear as the prices of IP and standard switched telephony converge. However, IDC says, other drivers will soon emerge, such as the possibility for new value-added applications. IDC's Internet Telephony in Europe report (number HT43EB) costs $595 and is billed as giving a broad overview of the developments in Internet telephony in Europe, with details of trials and current or planned commercial services. According to IDC, the report concentrates on the provision of public IP telephony and fax services over the Internet and managed IP backbones, with profiles of the activities of carriers, next- generation telcos, ITSPs, and ISPs in the emerging market.