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

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (1540)	10/14/1998 9:09:00 PM
From: STK1	Respond to of 3178

Good For Fujitsu and VocalTec,Bad for ATT.

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (1540)	10/16/1998 8:01:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3178

IP Telephony Conf - Cable Industry Eyes Packet Apps October 16, 1998 TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, Newsbytes via NewsEdge Corporation : The next time you get a new channel on your cable TV service, it might be a telephone. Since AT&T's acquisition of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), the spotlight has been brighter on the use of cable-TV networks to provide phone service. The cable television industry sees telephony, using Internet Protocol (IP) or other packet technology, as a market opportunity that would take advantage of its existing networks. "Basically for us it's an incremental business opportunity," said Barbara Adey, vice-president of technology at Vision.com, a research venture backed by eight Canadian cable-TV operators. Speaking at the IP Telephony and Voice/Data Convergence conference, Adey said cable networks are well placed to provide not only residential telephone service, but small office and home office applications such as videoconferencing and shared electronic whiteboards, as well as extending corporate private branch exchange (PBX) functions to the homes of telecommuting employees. Another speaker at the conference, Steve Guiton of the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) said that while the cable-TV industry in Canada is worth about 2.8 billion Canadian dollars, the telecommunications market amounted to some 20 billion Canadian dollars in 1997. The cable industry sees an "enormous opportunity" in this larger market, said Guiton, who is the CCTA's vice-president of telecommunications and multimedia. Before they can exploit the telephony-over-cable market's possibilities, Adey said, cable companies need to increase capacity, provide two-way service on their networks, and improve quality. There are about 7.8 million cable subscribers in Canada now, she said, and as of the beginning of October 4.3 million of those connections have two-way capability. Operators are adding upstream channels as well as working on standards needed to proceed with the new services. CableLabs, a research consortium of North American cable companies, is working on three initiatives in this area. The Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) project will provide fundamental standards. PacketCable will address how IP services can be delivered over cable, and the first feature specification is due soon, said Adey. The OpenCable initiative aims to develop specifications for digital set-top boxes that could provide multiple voice lines, always-on Internet access, and other new features. The industry hopes to begin delivering these late next year or in 2000. In Canada, Montreal-based Groupe Videotron has already said it plans to offer the service. Guiton raised the possibility of residential cable subscribers being able to turn on additional voice lines almost instantly through a set-top box, using a menu displayed on the TV screen. "Over the next 10 years," he said, "cable telephony will represent 20 percent of cable industry revenue." Reported By Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (1540)	10/18/1998 11:40:00 PM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

Voice, Video and Data ATM Tames the Three-Headed Beast Twister Communications Network Inc. (TCN) is just one example of a competitive carrier that is using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) to integrate voice, video and data. With few exceptions, alternative providers are currently aggressively moving toward a data-converged network due to industry direction, ability to differentiate, the increased dominance of data traffic on the network and economies of operation," notes Jennifer Pigg, senior vice president of New York strategy and research firm The Yankee Group. Twister's services leverage its multimedia network to offer prepaid calling cards, long distance, Internet, video and wholesale termination long distance services. Currently providing local-access connections in seven major Texas cities, TCN is targeting the next phase of its expansion to 40 cities nationwide for prepaid origination by the end of the year, and 100 more in 1999. It plans to use its growing long-haul network, a combination of private lines and soon-to-be-public long distance ATM services, not only for voice-over-voice service module (VSM), but also for Internet access and video services. TCN has grown from virtually no traffic to more than 30 million minutes per month and projects handling in excess of 60 million minutes per day by year's end. Also forecast is substantial Internet service use of up to 4 million users daily. "Twister is the first company to use a multimedia network that runs right up to the door of a customer," says Kamal Alavi, TCN's president, who describes the company's concept as providing "the innovative forms for communications--long distance, Internet service, videoconferencing--and the future of communications." Unlike larger, more-established incumbent carriers who have multiple legacy networks, Twister's network design was based on the latest technology from the start. Twister officials decided to use the most promising emergent technologies to provide leading-edge solutions for business and personal communications at very affordable rates to set it apart from its many competitors. The solutions it is engineering operate on high-speed ATM digital switching platforms, ideally suited for serving a heterogeneous mix of voice, data, videoconferencing--true multimedia. The architecture lets Twister target strategic geographic areas, resulting in rapid and substantial market share gain. TCN's initial competitive differentiator is the low cost it can charge. Seven cents per minute within the United States on prepaid calling cards, in which the caller accesses the network through local dial-tone services (or 14 cents-per-minute if through an 800 number), can be attributed directly to the cost-effective use of ATM. Compression of voice traffic significantly lowers bandwidth costs, as AAL2 voice-over-ATM offers the port density and nonblocking strengths of switches. Prior to the introduction of ATM, a range of technologies was required to provide multiple services. With ATM it is possible to integrate all these services into a single connection as well as provide higher data speeds and assign prioritization parameters of specific traffic. ATM switches enabled Twister to consolidate voice, video and data applications over a single network, increasing throughput and efficiency while boosting service capabilities. Twister was able to start small and increase capacity and expand applications on the same platform. Data and video easily can be added to provide customers with future value-added services. A single network management system ensures reliability throughout the entire network, from customer premises to the network operations center. Alternative providers must be able to handle the various stages of growth, beginning with a small form factor to reduce the initial costs of deployment. The system architecture must be scaleable and modular in design, and there must be a clear evolutionary path for future development. Interoperability and standards-based solutions ensure that possible application issues raised by the union of multiple networks due to alliances and acquisitions of other companies are addressed. Twister is taking advantage of the latest voice-over-ATM industry standard to provide highest quality to customers. This new standard allows for compression of voice traffic that significantly lowers bandwidth costs which, in turn, permits telcos to use either adaptive differential pulse code modulation (ADPCM), complex structure-algebraic code excited linear production (CS-ACELP) or both based on specific customer applications.