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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Linkon (LKON): CTI Company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mel Spivak who wrote (775)	10/9/1998 11:47:00 AM
From: Madeleine Harrison	Respond to of 1082

LKON+ .875 +.157 .812 b x .937 a 25x25 26000 11:27 .875 hi .750 lo

To: Mel Spivak who wrote (775)	10/9/1998 12:26:00 PM
From: Madeleine Harrison	Respond to of 1082

Mel, Is LKON involved in this? AT&T launches big initiative in Internet telephony By Sean Donahue SAN FRANCISCO (Wired) - AT&T has unveiled several services that would make it easier for big companies to use the Internet to carry voice telephone conversations. AT&T Corp (T - news)'s new efforts include a trial of Internet telephony, or IP, in private corporate networks and an expansion of its Chat 'N Talk conferencing service, which lets Internet chat-room users talk to each other through their PCs. The biggest US phone company also said it would set up an IP laboratory to develop new equipment and technological standards for the industry. The centerpiece of AT&T's initiatives is a beefed-up version of the AT&T Global Clearinghouse, an Internet telephony exchange that connects overseas Internet service providers and competitive phone companies to their counterparts in other countries. It also handles back-office chores like billing and contract negotiations on behalf of customers. The exchange now enables carriers to offer Internet telephony services in 140 countries. AT&T's announcements, delivered at the Internet World trade show in New York City, are a nod to the growing Internet telephony industry and signal that the former niche business is beginning to influence even the biggest telephone companies, analysts said. Carriers like AT&T have watched a raft of Internet telephony start-ups offer long-distance services significantly cheaper than traditional circuit-switched calls. Although voice on the Internet accounts for a fraction of all network traffic today, the trend poses a threat to phone company revenues. ''AT&T strongly believes that IP is the unifying protocol for transforming the telecommunications industry,'' said Kathleen Earley, vice president of AT&T's Internet Services, in a statement Thursday. So far, AT&T has launched its own phone-to-phone Internet telephony services in three cities in the United States and in Japan. But the company isn't likely to make a widespread transition to IP telephony until certain technical problems have been solved and standards established, said an AT&T official. Also, AT&T needs to upgrade much of its old-fashioned circuit-switched telephone network to handle IP technology-an expensive proposition. ''This is going to be a long evolution over time,'' said Jim Kwock, general manager of AT&mpT's global Internet telephony services. AT&T has already made limited forays into the Internet telephony world, with business applications like Internet calling for virtual private networks and the Chat 'N Talk service. AT&T launched its Global Clearinghouse because international calling, in particular, represents one of the best opportunities for IP telephony today, said Kwock. Some industry executives said AT&T's commitment to IP telephony could boost the entire industry, with AT&T's well-known name helping legitimize IP services. Tom Evslin, a former AT&T executive who founded closely held ITXC, another IP telephony exchange, thinks the benefits of the endorsement may offset increased competition from the telecommunications behemoth. ''You've got to watch what AT&T does, because you always watch what an elephant is doing,'' said Evslin. ''But for telcos that have been trying to decide how seriously to take IP telephony, it pushes them to move more quickly. There's a huge number of calling minutes waiting to be converted into Internet telephony, and this may give the industry a push.''