Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1121)	8/16/1998 11:39:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 3178

IP Pulse. A rollup of last week's voip news stories and events. Mailing List, INTERNET:modem@interaccess.com The IP Pulse - 8/17/98 /_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ ********************************************* Linkon Corporation The Leader in Universal Port Technology :\|:\|:\|:\|:\|:\|:\|:\|:\|:\|: Multiple DSP Compressions Integrated IP Voice & Fax - Highly Scaleable Intranet & Internet solutions - Low Latency linkon.com ********************************************* Sprint Trials Internet Telephony in Select US Markets IGS Offer Distibution Program for its VoIP Service ADT Plans to Launch Internet Telephony Service This Fall Digitcom to Use Natural MicroSystems Fusion Platform for Network Expansion Global Access Pagers to Offer Internet Telephony Carrier1 to Use Cisco Equipment for VoIP network Telstra to Trial IP Telephony Using Equipment from Siemens, Netspeak and 3Com FNet Activates IP Telephony Enabling Switch in the US Communications Authority of Thailand to Offer Internet Telephony ACC to Use VoCAL's Technology to Add FoIP Capabilities to its Tigris Gateways Miller Freeman Announces Conference that will Address VoIP Among Other Topics Creative and Excite to Distribute Net2Phone Software and Services Whistle Integrates .comfax's Internet Fax Service Into its Office Server eCorp to Integrate FaxSav's Internet Fax Technology into its Offerings Sprint Trials Internet Telephony in Select US Markets ==================== Sprint has announced that it will trial its phone to phone IP telephony service, Sprint Callternatives, in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Subscribers in those markets will be able to place calls to anywhere in the US, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, India, Japan, Mexico City, South Korea and Taiwan. The calls will be routed over Sprint's IP backbone. Sprint has not disclosed the cost of calls per minute. The company does plan to bill the service in prepaid increments of $10 or $25. To use the service, subs will need to dial a local access number, a PIN, and then the destination number. The Callternatives trial is expected to begin operation this week. Sprint has indicated that it is also planning to offer other IP communications services over its IP network including fax and unified messaging. Sprint sprint.com IGS Offer Distibution Program for its VoIP Service ============== Internet Global Services (IGS), a Texas based ISP, has announced a distribution program for TelAres, its US based VoIP long distance service. IGS will pay ISPs that would like to promote the service $2 to $2.50 a month for each customer they sign up. IGS will provide the ISPs with the necessary IP backbone capacity, equipment and customer support for the service. IGS has built an IP backbone exclusively for the service to enable a better QoS. In another attempt to better the QoS, the provider has connected the IP backbone with the networks of MCI, Sprint and UUNET to enable it to drop the voice traffic directly onto the network segment that it is going to. The company will utilize Ericsson's PhoneDoubler technology to transmit the phone to phone, PC to phone and PC to PC VoIP communications. IGS currently offers the service in Denver and seven cities in Texas. The company plans to offer the service in Seattle and Portland. IGS charges TelAres subs $9.95 a month to use the service and 4.9 cents per minute for calls. Internet Global Services iglobal.net Telares telares.net ADT Plans to Launch Internet Telephony Service This Fall =================== American Digital Telecommunications (ADT) has announced that it will launch an IP telephony service, ADTnet, using its iGate Internet telephony gateways this fall. ADT is expecting to install the iGate gateways at local host premises in the five most heavily accessed international long distance markets. ADT will provide settlement services for the local host companies that originate and terminate call traffic. The iGate gateway series have port capacities that range from 24 to 1008 (simultaneous calls) per system. The Windows NT based products support VoIP communications from phone to phone, PC to phone, and PC to PC. American Digital Telecommunications adt-net.com Digitcom to Use Natural MicroSystems Fusion Platform for Network Expansion ======================= Digitcom has announced that it will use Natural MicroSystems' Fusion IP Telephony platform to expand its V/FoIP network into Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Australia and the US (Los Angeles). The company plans to use the network to offer an array of IP services in those markets including V/FoIP, voice messaging, enterprise level Intranet IP phone service, video conferencing and multimedia communications. The VoIP network is scheduled for testing this fall. Digitcom digitcom.com Natural MicroSystems nmss.com Global Access Pagers to Offer Internet Telephony ================ Global Access Pagers has announced that it is planning to offer an Internet telephony service through its MICRO-NETip Internet telephony gateway in Los Angeles. The company will lease a gateway to a business, and allow call traffic to be routed over the Internet to its LA gateway, where it will complete the call to any phone in the world via the PSTN. Global Access currently has MICRO-NETip Internet telephony gateways installed and operating in Hong Kong and Los Angeles Global Access Pagers gapagers.com Carrier1 to Use Cisco Equipment for VoIP network ===================== Carrier1 has announced a that it will use Cisco's backbone routing hardware and software to launch wholesale international voice, IP, and data services in the European market. The deal is valued at approximately $5 million. According to the terms of the arrangement, Cisco will provide Carrier1 with a turnkey network solution that will span five European countries, with links to the US. The turnkey offering will include installation, commission, design, management and operations of the network. The network is expected to be operational by next month. Carrier1 carrier1.com Cisco cisco.com Telstra to Trial IP Telephony Using Equipment from Siemens, Netspeak and 3Com ============================ Telstra has announced that it will trial an IP telephony service using a VoIP platform based on Siemens' InterXpress product with components from NetSpeak and 3Com. The phone to phone trial will be limited to 250 users and it will only enable users in Sydney to make calls to London. Limitations on the service will allow Telstra to focus on improving QoS before launching the service commercially. Telstra telstra.com.au Siemens internet.siemens.com Netspeak netspeak.com 3Com 3com.com FNet Activates IP Telephony Enabling Switch in the US ============ Franklin Telecom has announced that its subsidiary, Fnet, has activated a Harris 20-20 LX switch at its Westlake Village, California POP. The switch will enable FNet to terminate VoIP and traditional telephony calls in 250 countries. The switch, which is currently routing test traffic, is expected to be fully operational and carrying commercial traffic by next week. FNet ftel.net Franklin Telecom ftel.com Communications Authority of Thailand to Offer Internet Telephony ============= The Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) has announced that it has teamed with Chungwa Telecom of Taiwan to trial PC to phone and Internet to phone IP telephony services. CAT is currently prepared to invest 6 million baht (US $141,176) in Internet telephony equipment. Communication Authority of Thailand cat.or.th ACC to Use VoCAL's Technology to Add FoIP Capabilities to its Tigris Gateways ======================== ACC has announced that it is adding FoIP capabilities to its Tigris family of remote access concentrators. The Tigris series currently utilizes high-density DSP-based technology developed by VoCAL Technologies to provide up to 192 VoIP calls per interface card, and up to 1,344 calls per chassis. ACC will utilize VoCAL's FoIP software library, dubbed VoIPfax, to enable the Tigris products to send real-time facsimile transmissions over the Internet . ACC acc.com Miller Freeman Announces Conference that will Address VoIP Among Other Topics ============ Miller Freeman has announced that it will produce the Communication Design Engineering conference (CDEC) to address a plethora of topics including ADSL, VoIP, ATM and Modulation Techniques. CDEC is scheduled to be held in San Jose on October 29 and 30. It will offer 24 technical classes covering techniques and methodologies for network hardware design. It will also feature hands-on training and education resources for professionals that are designing next generation network communications solutions. More information regarding the conference is available at csdmag.com Communication Systems Design csdmag.com Communication Design Engineering Conference csdmag.com Creative and Excite to Distribute Net2Phone Software and Services =============== IDT has announced that Creative Technology and Excite will distribute its Net2Phone Internet telephony software and services. Creative Technology will bundle the Net2Phone software with its Sound Blaster audio card and peripheral products. In return, IDT will design a version of the software exclusively for use with Creative's multimedia products. Excite plans to integrate the Net2Phone software into its personalized directory to enable users to look up a telephone number in the directory, and then call the number by clicking it. The IP telephony directory service will be available in Australia, Germany, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. In a separate announcement, Net2Phone will offer its PC to phone service at 10 cents per minute for calls to Australia, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and the UK. Calls to Brazil Israel, Italy and Taiwan and will be priced at between 10 and 20 cents per minute. Excite excite.com Creative Technology creaf.com IDT idt.net Net2Phone net2phone.com Whistle Integrates .comfax's Internet Fax Service Into its Office Server ================ .comfax has announced that it will design a version of its .comfax Internet fax software to enable users of Whistle Communication's InterJet product, an Internet office server, to send facsimiles over the Internet. Users of the .comfax/Whistle software will be able to compose a document in any application on a PC and send it directly to a fax machine via the .comfax global network of Internet fax servers. Whistle's InterJet product provides e-mail, web access and web publishing capabilities to a network of computers in an office of up to 100 users. .comfax comfax.com Whistle Communications whistle.com eCorp to Integrate FaxSav's Internet Fax Technology into its Offerings =============================== eCorp has announced that it will integrate FaxSav's Interent fax software and services into its suite of messaging and information management software offerings. The integrated product, dubbed eFax, will enable documents created it in any Windows application or scanned documents to be sent as a fax over FaxSav's global Internet fax network. The eFax product will feature a cover page editor, broadcast fax capabilities, one call faxing which will automatically re-send the fax until it is delivered, and fax number directory/storage capabilities. eCorp e-corp.com FaxSav faxsav.com c Copyright 1998 Gecko Research + Publishing ======================================================================== IP Pulse is a weekly publication tracking the latest news effecting the market and technology enabling voice over IP and related technologies. The latest issue is published on the IP xStream web site and distributed to members of the xStream Mailing List. You may access the current online issue and archived issues at ipxstream.com For more information on the Internet Telephony market, visit the IP xStream web site at ipxstream.com This mailing list is not only a distribution channel for IP Pulse, but it also serves as an electronic forum for the industry. You are encouraged to share your comments and questions with the other members of this list. Posts are sent out in a digested form once a week or when applicable. To post a message to the list, send email to telephony@ipxstream.com. The list is moderated and inappropriate postings will not be distributed. TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Please complete the unsubscribe form accessible at hfc.net This list proudly serves 3,217 members of the IP telephony industry and Internet community. =======================================================================

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1121)	8/16/1998 11:53:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3178

A SMARTMONEY VoIP article snatched from the IDTC Thread, thanks to Tom Gebing. SMARTMONEY DAILY SCREEN: The Talking Internet By JOSHUA ALBERTSON Dow Jones Newswires SmartMoney Interactive NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--With all the talk about the convergence of voice and data, one would think that "chatting" on the Internet would involve more than sending email or typing furiously in some Web chat room. Well, a group of service and equipment companies are betting that soon it will. Welcome to the world of Internet Protocol (IP) telephony, where voice is just another traveler on Internet networks. Other than the tech-savvy early adopters in this country, most of the current market for IP telephony is international. And although there is the potential for growth in the U.S., most analysts say that the future is predominantly international as well. David Smith of Technology Futures, a telecommunications research concern, believes that the international voice-over Internet Protocol market will grow from approximately $600 million today to $20 billion in 2003, while the domestic market will rise from $100 million to $4 billion. That's because hony is much more competitive domestically; witness the variety of 10cent-per-minute phone plans flashing across your television screens. But internationally, the market isn't as crowded with good rates, and companies offering Internet voice connections can do so at much lower prices. Internet telephony bypasses the access costs that apply to standard telephone calls over circuit-switched networks. Voice is essentially compressed into packets of data and sent over the Internet through 'gateways" provided by the service companies. As Smith's estimates suggest, the possibilities are vast. And analysts on Wall Street are getting excited, too. "The potential for IP telephony will be huge," says Ulric Weil of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey. Of course, potential is the key word. "To pass judgment is difficult," says Weil. Many of the major networking and telecom equipment companies, like Cisco (CSCO), Lucent (LU) and Ascend (ASND), are at the forefront of this movement, but we chose to focus on the service end for now, where some companies have begun to make Internet telephony a reality, Our research turned up several interesting players, including competitive local exchange carrier Intermedia (ICIX), which we wrote about last month in our CLEC screen, and Inter-Tel (INTL), which popped up last week on our tech values screen. We also came across PSINet (PSIX), a stalwart Internet service provider that recently unveiled plans to provide a suite of voice-over Internet Protocol services to its corporate customers. Although the product, PSIVoice, is still in the introductory phases, the company believes that it will parry favor with multinational corporations wishing to communicate between dispersed offices. The trouble in screening this group is that in these early days of development nobody is making much money from residential customers. And the major players in the corporate market -- where Smith thinks the best opportunities lie -- have yet to realize any significant gains either. One company that has gotten its program running is Hackensack, N.J.-based IDT (IDTC). IDT entered the Internet telephony market in 1996 with its Net2Phone product. Net2Phone allows residential customers to use their PCs to call people using telephones at the other end. The call is carried over the Internet until it reaches a Net2Phone switch at its destination, thereby eliminating most long-distance carrying fees. The company charges from 5 cents to 8 cents per minute for domestic calls and less than 10 cents to some international markets. It has also been busy partnering of late, signing deals with Yahoo! (YHOO), Excite (XCIT) and IBM (IBM) to promote Net2Phone. The Excite collaboration, announced earlier this week, will expand the company's international presence by offering IP telephony services directly to Excite customers. The company currently gets about half of its IP telephony revenue from abroad. Despite the marketing efforts, revenue from Net2Phone is still rather limited. The company grossed $2.8 million last quarter, approximately 3% of its total intake. But that number is up from $0.8 million a year ago, and the company expects that Internet telephony revenue can account for 25% of total revenue within a year. Michele Wolf of Bear Stearns isn't convinced that consumer Internet telephony will be a major revenue driver for the company going forward, but she admits that the company is well-positioned should the market explode. "If the international market took off," she says, "' I think IDT is positioned to be a major player in it. If it runs, then they should be a market leader." Meanwhile, the company is taking steps to diversify its portfolio. Launched earlier this summer, Project David is IDT's corporate entry into the IP telephony market and at rock bottom prices -- 3.5 cents per minute for domestic calls and about 10 cents for calls to certain markets in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Basically, the rates are so low because the company installs gateways in the offices of its corporate customers that enable calls to be routed directly from private branch exchanges (PBX) onto IDT's IP network, which carries them to their destination. There are plenty of hurdles going forward. Analysts worry that regulators will begin to limit the prices these companies can offer. IDT will also face its share of competition as it broadens its IP telephony offerings. Smith looks for all of the Internet backbone companies to join the fray, followed closely by companies providing cable Internet services. "By definition, the cable modems are always on line," he says. "That's going to be one of the places Smith also sees expanding services in areas where wireless local loops are being deployed. But for now, IDT is leading the pack, and, according to at least one analyst, that will count for a lot as the market develops. "In IP telephony, he who gets in the earliest stands to make the most," says Weil. Nonetheless, it's still early to play IDT -- or any company, for that matter -- as an IP telephony stock. But it would certainly be an encouraging sign if the company makes good on its plans to gain a quarter of its revenue from this segment. In the meantime, a consensus of analysts expects the company to report earnings of 18 cents for the quarter that ended in July based on the strength of its traditional telephone service and calling card businesses. That will bring fiscal 1998 (ending in July) earning s to 53 cents per share, a significant jump over last year's loss of 18 cents. And if analysts are correct, the company should see earnings growth of 57% and 29% in 1999 and 2000. That means that the company is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio -- 28, based on 1999 estimates -- well below its projected growth rate.