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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 (1123)	8/17/1998 9:15:00 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 3178

NetPhone Gets Third Round Of Financing August 17, 1998 MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., Newsbytes via NewsEdge Corporation : Capitalizing on the interest in Net telephony, NetPhone has announced it has completed its third round of financing, which has generated $3 million for the firm. Brooktrout Technology and Cabletron Systems, already existing investors in NetPhone, were represented in the third round, as was Applied Technology, a venture capital company, and CTC Itochu, Japan's largest computer products distributor. In parallel with the third round of financing, NetPhone and CTC Itochu have also formed a partnership that Netphone says will add significant strength to its planned launch of its international distribution strategy in Q4 of this year. Rounding off the trio of announcements from NetPhone, the company has appointed Maurice Rodrigue as president and chief operating officer. Newsbytes notes that Rodrigue was previously vice president of sales for the firm, and will retain the title until a replacement is hired. Frederick Bamber, a member of the NetPhone board of directors, said that the new round of financing, strong domestic partners such as IBM, international distribution partners and the appointment of Rodrigue "position NetPhone to capitalize on a significant market opportunity." This month's round of announcements follows on from the shipment of NetPhone 2.4 last month, Newsbytes notes. The Windows NT package, which propelled NetPhone into the small to medium sized company marketplace for the first time, is distinguished from the competition by the addition of voice mail with e-mail and a Windows 98 style interface. The software has been criticized from some quarters, however by the lack of full automatic call distribution capabilities for round-robin- style call centers or personal call management and server administration via a Web browser. NetPhone's Web site is at netphone.com . Reported by Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com . (19980814/Press Contact: Sara Jones, Schwartz Communications 781-684- 0770; NetPhone 1-800-991-2529/WIRES ONLINE, TELECOM, BUSINESS/) <<Newsbytes -- 08-14-98>> [Copyright 1998, NewsBytes]

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (1123)	8/17/1998 9:29:00 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3178

Core Switch Makers Ponder An IP Future August 17, 1998 Inter@ctive Week via NewsEdge Corporation : The new service providers that aren't saddled to legacy equipment like to talk about Internet Protocol as the future of networking. But, at least for now, they're making sure to deploy Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology to offer services. That's good news for the companies that make Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) core switches. But even as these manufacturers rack up sales of their ATM products, they are starting to develop long-term plans to incorporate more Internet Protocol (IP) technology into their product lines. Level 3 Communications Inc., Qwest Communications International Inc. and Williams Communications Inc. are among the new service providers that have tested and installed ATM switches as part of the core of their fiber-based communications networks. "As a wholesale provider, we need to take into account the needs of carriers that have all types of media in their networks," says Amy Reiber, senior manager at Williams (www.wilcom.com), which uses GX550 ATM switches from Ascend Communications Inc. (www.ascend.com) in its network. "It's important to use ATM because it offers quality of service," she says. "There's also the ease of use it gives customers who are connecting back into our network." In many ways, these new carriers have no choice. ATM is a proven technology that can handle different forms of traffic effectively without delay. Its ability to offer different qualities of service enables providers to make service guarantees and offer differentiated services with differentiated pricing -- something that IP can't do just yet. ATM's advantage on that front won't last forever, however. "It's only a matter of time until IP is perfected," says Niall Gallagher, senior manager at Northern Telecom Inc. (www.nortel.com), a provider of ATM core switches. "As IP networks get faster, the issues of jitter and delay are going away." As the performance gap between IP and ATM shrinks, the debate over which technology to use will become more intense. The big issue is whether investments made now in ATM will look like the smart move five or 10 years from now. "We've reached a funny stage," Gallagher says. "To compete in offering IP services, providers have to build ATM services." The Big Switch The coming together of the ATM and IP worlds has equipment makers scrambling to articulate a long-term strategy. Most manufacturers say they expect the network's core to feature a mix of ATM and IP -- although some aren't ready to say exactly what that mix will be or how it will work. "We're looking at IP very seriously right now, says Joon Miller, director of product planning at Fujitsu Network Communications. "We're looking to develop an IP hybrid product. We're not sure whether we'll be IP- or ATM-centric, but it has to be something in the middle, like an IP router and ATM switch, to address that market." To date, however, Fujitsu (www.fnc.fujitsu.com) has yet to announce an IP strategy for its core products. Ascend continues to preach ATM. "Some vendors would love you to believe that everything is going to be IP," says Tim Krasky, vice president of marketing for the core systems division at Ascend. "Well, SNA [System Network Architecture] and frame relay and voice are not IP. ATM is the best bet for those multiple media types." The key advantages of today's ATM core switches are size and predictability. ATM core switches are big and typically based on distributed processors with high-speed interfaces and direct fiber connections. They're built to carry large volumes of data at incredibly fast speeds. And with voice migrating into the core, the core itself becomes larger. These monster switches do need some intelligence, according to Krasky, such as being able to reroute traffic automatically around a failed route through the network via Switched Virtual Circuits. "There's no market for stupid switches," Krasky says. Some Of This, A Little Of That Several ATM core switch makers say they will develop terabit IP switch routers to accommodate IP traffic in their networks. But those products won't necessarily replace ATM at the network core, says Fred Baker, chairman of the Internet Engineering Task Force (www.ietf.org). "It's a mix of engineering trade-offs," Baker says. "If you need a muxed interface that can talk to everything, then that'll be your choice. If you need a point-to-point relationship between two routers, then packet over SONET [Synchronous Optical Network] is OK. They'll both have a place in the sun." Baker notes that today's terabit products aren't ready for heavy-duty core action. The segmentation and reassembly chips that handle conversion between IP and ATM formats aren't available at OC-48, or 2.4-gigabit-per-second speeds, he explains. "Until we get a chip to handle framing at OC-48, we can't even talk about terabit speeds," he says. One knock against ATM is its high overhead when compared with IP. With ATM, five bytes of every 53-byte cell is reserved for header information. "Service providers say eliminating the cell tax could pay for the line, " Baker says. "There are costs and benefits to each approach." As the performance gap between IP and ATM shrinks, the debate over which technology to use will become more intense Core Curriculum Here's how key Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) core switch makers plan to handle Internet Protocol (IP) Vendor ATM Core Switch IP Plans Ascend Communications Inc. (www.ascend.com) GX550 Will develop terabit IP switch router Cisco Systems Inc. (www.cisco.com) BPX Sells TGX terabit switch router Fore Systems Inc. (www.fore.com) ASX4000 Will develop hybrid ATM/IP core switch Fujitsu Network Comm. (www.fnc.fujitsu.com) FETEX-150 Will develop terabit IP switch router NEC America Inc. (www.nec.com) ATOMNETM20 No IP plans announced Newbridge Networks Corp. (www.newbridge.com) MainStreetXpress 36190 Will develop hybrid ATM/IP core switch Siemens AG (www.siemens.com) MainStreetXpress 36190 Will develop terabit IP switch router <<Inter@ctive Week -- 08-14-98>> [Copyright 1998, Ziff Wire]