CLARENET/ Korea Telecom announces global initiatives for exchanging international IP telephony minutes
September 22, 1998
M2 PRESSWIRE via NewsEdge Corporation :
Korea's largest telco will offer minutes based
on world's first IP telephony single stage
dialing implementation using Signaling System
7 (C7) IP telephony technology from Clarenet
Corporation
Korea Telecom (KT), South Korea's largest
telecommunications provider, announced
today that it is launching global partnership
initiatives with large telcos and ITSP partners
for exchanging IP telephony international
calling minutes.
Korea Telecom's goal is to expand its LP
telephony calling network by partnering with
major carriers and ITSP's in areas where KT
does not have a major presence. In
particular, KT is looking for partners from
Asia, North America, Latin America, and
Europe. KT's combined strength in traditional
circuit switch and IP network infrastructures
will provide an unparalleled competitive
advantage for KT's partners as the world's
telecommunications infrastructure goes
through a profound change.
KT anticipates very large call volumes
because of the deregulation of the Korean
market; the global mass adoption of Voice
over IP technology, and KT's recent success
in implementing and deploying the world's first
SS7/C7 integration between traditional circuit
switch network and LP network allowing
seamless single stage dialing. By using
Clarenet Corporation's SS7/C7- enabled
(Signaling System 7) system, Korea Telecom's
customers can easily choose whether their
calls will be routed over the traditional long
distance network or over the cost-saving IP
telephony network.
Single stage dialing makes long distance
calling much simpler because the caller does
not have to enter an ID number or PIN before
making the call. To make an international call
over the traditional network, KT's customers
dial as they normally would dial a long
distance number (dial 00 1 +destination
number). To make an international call over
the IP telephony network, called "KT Internet
Phone 00727", customers simply dial
00727+the destination number and the call is
automatically routed over the IP network.
The customer will receive a single phone bill
from KT with different rates based on the
service they selected for each call.
In addition to offering single stage dialing,
Korea Telecom is also offering three other
services based on the Clarenet system:
* "KT Card" is an integrated solution with KT's
existing calling card service that allows users
to call over the IP network as a new option,
using an ID and password, and receiving the
benefit of being billed together on their
regular monthly phone bill.
* "Worldphone+" is a prepaid calling card
service which allows consumers to purchase
cards from banks, convenience stores,
airports, and telephone offices. These cards
allow instant, anywhere access to fixed
amounts of IP Telephony calling minutes as a
new option.
* "KT Express" is KT's leased line service
targeting the corporate customer, allowing
enterprises to more easily enjoy the
cost-saving benefits of converged IP
networks by directly connecting their PBX's
to the IP telephony network.
Korea Telecom's Internet Phone's cost
savings are dramatic. The service allows
discounted calling to over 51 countries
around the world for prices ranging from 330
Korean Won per minute (approx. US$.25 per
minute) to 978 Korean Won per minute
(approx. US$.75 per minute), 50% lower, on
average, than a traditional international call
from South Korea.
"Korea Telecom sees IP telephony as a key
technology in offering future services to
consumer and business customers," said Mr.
Na Sung Hwan, Managing Director, Internet
Business Team, at Korea Telecom. "For our
customers to fully benefit from this new
technology., we needed to expand the reach
of our IP telephony network via global
partners, and we also need to make the IP
telephony technology easy and transparent
for consumers to use. C7 based single stage
dialing allows them to use the service without
changing their traditional dialing behaviour.
Clarenet Corporation, with its advanced and
industry-leading IP telephony and SS7/C7
integration technology, provided a complete
solution for us so that we could integrate IP
telephony in our networks and make this
revolutionary capability available to our
customers. "
"Clarenet Corporation is very pleased to be
Korea Telecom's supplier for the KT Internet
Phone services", said Jerry Chang, CEO,
President, and Co-Founder of Clarenet
Corporation. "Clarenet's products are geared
for the carrier market, and will help Korea
Telecom and its global partners create a new
revenue stream, enter new markets, save on
transmission expense, and set the stage for
offering future new value add products for
the consumers an enterprises."
About Korea Telecom
Korea Telecom delivers South Korea-Wide
local and long distance calling services,
overseas calling services, Multimedia
Services, and Satellite communications
services. KT is 2 8.9% owned by private
shareholders and institutions; and 71.1 % by
the Korean Government with total Assets
US$16,768 million, and Total Annual Revenue
US$ 8,517 million. Korea Telecom has 24
million telephone lines installed; 20 million
telephone subscribers; and 60,000
employees. . Korea Telecom is undertaking
many projects to link the company's
communications facilities with those of other
countries in Asia to the rest of the world.
Pursuant to the terms of the WTO
Agreement, Korea's telecommunications
market has been opened to foreigners since
January 1, 1998.
Interested IP telephony partners should
contact Mr. Na, Sung-Hwan, Managing
Director, Internet Business Team, Information
Business Center, Korea Telecom. Tel: +82
342 727 6070; Fax: +82 342 727 6099;
e-mail: nsh@kt.co.kr. For further information,
please visit KT web site at
kt.co.kr
About Clarenet
Clarenet Corporation is a privately held
company and a premier provider of Internet
telephony solutions offering clear voice,
real-time fax, SS7/C7 integration and a host
of other business-ready capabilities. Clarenet
Gateway allows the sending and receiving of
telephone voice calls and FAX over the
Internet or a TCP/IP intranet. Clarenet
Command Center provides billing and
management for a very large network of
Clarenet Gateways. All Clarenet products are
backed by a complete, robust, scalable
network infrastructure, enabling network and
enterprise customers to easily run their
business communications on IP telephony.
Founded in July 1996, Clarenet is
headquartered in Redwood City, California,
and also has offices in Chicago, Taipei, Tokyo
and Europe. Additional information about
Clarenet is available at
clarent.com. |
