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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 (1549)	10/19/1998 1:08:00 PM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

CHANCELLOR'S MARCUS STILL PITCHING CABLE/ LOOK OUT FOR AT&T, HE SAYS October 19, 1998 Electronic Media via NewsEdge Corporation : New York-Jeff Marcus is still pitching cable. Even though Mr. Marcus exited the cable business four months ago following the purchase of Marcus Cable by Paul Allen, the 31-year cable veteran, and now president of radio giant Chancellor Media, is bullish on cable. He believes it will be the pipeline to deliver the next generation of digital and interactive services. In an interview with ELECTRONIC MEDIA, Mr. Marcus, keynote speaker at this week's Atlantic Cable Show, discusses the state of cable, including the arrival of digital set-top boxes, competition and this year's big money deals to grab cable systems. An edited transcript of the interview follows: EM: Industry analyst Paul Kagan says a large chunk of cable's future foundation is already in place with Paul Allen's purchase of Marcus Cable and Charter Communications and Bill Gates' $1 billion investment in Comcast last year. Is that true, and are there any other blockbuster cable deals still to come? Mr. Marcus: Cable is moving beyond just being an entertainment provider. That's the premise Paul Allen and AT&T are assuming in investing in cable. We'll certainly see Paul Allen try to increase his footprint, and I wouldn't be surprised to see AT&T do the same. You've got some new deep-pocketed investors with a vision for the business that's consistent with what we've thought about the business for so long. Those deals give credence to cable's growth in the future. EM: But as far as further industry consolidation, will cable wind up with a half-dozen giant multiple system operators that have gobbled up all the small and midsize cable systems? Mr. Marcus: You are going to end up with a half-dozen MSOs owning a large part of the industry. But this is a business that will continue to be filled with entrepreneurs and smaller companies that will continue serving their communities for a long time. It's just like the telephone industry; there's a lot of independent telephone companies out there that are doing very well. EM: So cable won't turn into the Big 6 MSOs who control all the business? Mr. Marcus: I don't think so. If you look at the top 10 operators today, they control about 85 percent of the industry. That will compress, but I still think there'll be a significant number of independents that will continue to serve their communities very well. EM: Will there be any more large cable deals cut this year? Mr. Marcus: No. I don't think so. When you got such a dislocation in the financial markets as we're seeing now, it's sort of tough seeing any more large deals being announced until things stabilize. But that's pure speculation on my part. EM: Have cable deals done this year like AT&T-TCI, Marcus and Charter been overpriced? What about the cash-flow multiples of those deals. Do they accurately reflect market value or are they above market value? Mr. Marcus: Market value is when a willing buyer and willing seller agree to do a transaction at a given price. That's the market. You have to look at [the] recent AT&T and Charter Communications transactions and say that's reflective of the market. But there's always a premium paid for size, and I think AT&T as well as Paul [Allen] paid a premium. Small rural systems aren't selling at those kinds of prices at all. There's kind of a two-tier market out there. EM: But weren't those prices, based on previous deals, a little high? Mr. Marcus: If all you think you are going to be is an entertainment business, then the prices are a little wacky. But if you're Paul Allen or you're AT&T and you need to create mass and you need this cable platform to do all of this, then you have to go out and pay the freight. If you believe in the Internet's future and cable's digital compression future and the future of the IP [Internet Protocol] telephony applications, I think that it would be difficult to say whether these prices are too high, too low or just right. EM: Do you hear anything about Paul Allen buying any other MSOs? Mr. Marcus: You hear about him interested in buying Century Communications and you hear about him interested in MediaOne-I guess he bought a 3 percent interest- but I haven't heard anything beyond that. EM: How would you say cable has performed so far in 1998? Mr. Marcus: Cable has really begun to show its stuff in 1998. You sure have to be impressed that through this recent stock market debacle, cable stocks have held up for the most part. What AT&T is proposing in respect to IP telephony is very exciting. Cable's future is very bright. EM: Cable stocks continued to climb this year, and Wall Street appears confident cable will be able to deliver on its promised new digital services. Will cable stocks stay strong or will they be highly susceptible to other overall market swings? Mr. Marcus: If I knew that answer I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing; I'd be in a tie with Paul Allen for the third wealthiest guy in the country. But seriously, the fundamentals of cable are sound. People can see pre-cash flow generation is around the corner. There's no significant threat on the horizon for the business. The fact that the cable stocks have held up throughout this stock market meltdown is an indication that maybe I'm not alone in that conviction. EM: What's the biggest obstacle cable still needs to tackle? Mr. Marcus: Customer service is still a big issue. We've certainly seen cable do a lot better, but now you're talking about [cable] being a telephone provider. There's still some more work to be done before people will have the kind of confidence for them to move over to have their telephone provided by a cable operator. EM: What other pressing issues are on cable's to-do list? Mr. Marcus: Another potential issue is government re-regulation. Not that there's really any merits for it, but it's never stopped the government in the past. We're at a very delicate time. The industry has to tread softly and focus more on launching new services than on pushing up new cable rates. Because even though there's real competition to cable in the form of DBS, I think the common perception is that's not the case. EM: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is pushing forward legislation that would let direct broadcast satellite operators offer local broadcast signals. If passed, how does it change cable's landscape? Mr. Marcus: If DBS gets the ability to offer local signals, it certainly should be all the local signals and not just being able to just cherry-pick them. But if you look at cable vs. DBS service, cable is still cheaper. Even when DBS can finally provide all the local broadcast signals, cable will have an advantage over DBS. EM: Besides high-speed modem services and digital boxes, what other services will cable MSOs try to develop into new revenue streams? Mr. Marcus: The whole telephony issue is very exciting, and what AT&T is laying out has tremendous potential. If indeed they [AT&T] can provide IP telephony over 450 MHz plant with a fiber-optic return, it's going to make a huge difference. And it's also going to enable small market [cable] operators that are not particularly well clustered to share in this new revenue stream. EM: Will MSOs do anything with electronic commerce-selling products over interactive cable? Is that another potential new revenue stream for operators to tap once high-speed cable modems and digital cable boxes are finally hooked up to cable homes? Mr. Marcus: It's got a big future. Last week, Liberty Media announced Liberty Media Interactive with Lee Masters coming in to run it. And [USA Networks Chairman] Barry Diller is certainly well positioned to do that with HSN [Home Shopping Network], Ticketmaster Online and USA. Let's say future e-commerce applications for cable will be quite significant. EM: Does cable still have a long way to go to deliver two-way digital cable boxes? Mr. Marcus: There's a lot of . . . wood to chop before this all comes home to roost. But I do think we're eventually going to see it. Those companies which are particularly good at execution will sell it at a premium. That's why Cox [Communications], which does not have great cash flow margins, is at the top of the heap because they're such good operators and their plant is in such good shape. EM: Most cable network companies have digital network spinoffs tailored for digital tiers. But so far only a handful of cable systems have rolled out digital tiers. When do you think we'll see cable operators deploying digital tiers en masse? Mr. Marcus: The real hangup for deployment of the digital tiers is the promise of the open cable box. If you can have one box that is analog converter, digital converter, high-speed modem and video on demand in an all-in-one box to be delivered in the not-too-distant future, maybe you'd rather wait than put out $350 for a digital box right now. There's some hesitancy on operators' part to deploy mass capital investments on these boxes when they could become obsolete very quickly. You don't want to spend tens of millions of dollars only to find out 12 months later there's a better box. EM: How does radio compare to the cable business? Mr. Marcus: It's got a whole new jargon and whole new set of issues for me. I came to Chancellor unburdened by any experience. I can ask questions such as 'why do we do this this way?' Sometimes we can figure new ways to do things. I hope to be able to provide a bridge between the two industries.

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (1549)	10/19/1998 5:01:00 PM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3178

Dialogic and MultiCall Partner to Develop "Intelligent Call Center" Applications for CT Servers PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 19, 1998-- World-Class Developer of Intelligent Call Center Applications Embraces Industry Standard CT Media Telephony Server Software Dialogic Corporation (NASDAQ:DLGC) today announced an agreement whereby MultiCall Computer Telephony Systems, a division of Lansys Ltd., will develop and market intelligent call center applications for the small to medium-sized call center market based on Dialogic's CT Media(tm) telephony server software. MultiCall will port critical intelligent call center applications, including Intelligent Call Routing (ICR), Intelligent Call Distribution (ICD), Intelligent Outbound Dialing (IOD) and the multimedia Web Interaction Server to the CT Media telephony server software. This will enable the applications to share common computer telephony (CT) hardware and take advantage of new technologies without the need to rewrite these applications. The increasing application support for Dialogic's CT Media software highlights the increasing market acceptance of CT Media software and the burgeoning market for interoperable telephony applications. "CT Media allows us to quickly tailor systems to the unique needs of individual call centers--no more closed systems or non-published APIs to contend with," said Barry Jerushalmy, president and CEO of Lansys / MultiCall. "Working with CT Media and Dialogic will enable us to expand our market and quickly deliver scalable, interoperable, full-feature customer interaction systems for small enterprises, as well as departments and branches of large corporations." "CT Media telephony server software offers a breadth of tools that enable developers to incorporate advanced capabilities in their call center applications, which means developers like MultiCall and their customers benefit through vastly reduced development time, lowered cost and greater functionality," said Dean Trumbull, vice president, Dialogic CT Switch Division. "Because CT Media is standards-based, independent CT developers can build applications that take advantage of the functionality of other CT Media-compliant hardware as well as applications from companies like MultiCall." "Our partnership with MultiCall, while aiming to capitalize on the exponential growth of the call center market, is more broadly a vindication of what CT developers and their customers have been telling us for the last year," said Trumbull. "That is, the call center business can grow as fast as the tools to automate it can be developed. By leveraging Dialogic's CT Media telephony server software, MultiCall, already a leader in the small to medium-sized market, can profit from and actually help expand the market for interoperable intelligent call center solutions." CT Server - Multiple Vendors Share a Single Platform Dialogic and other telecommunications leaders continue to drive the industry initiative to deliver open, standards-based platforms for telephony services and eclipse proprietary, closed systems that support only software and hardware developed or integrated by a single vendor. These computer telephony servers will support open application programming interfaces (APIs), allowing multiple applications to share the server. At the core of the CT Server is Dialogic's CT Media standards-based telephony server software that administers multiple applications and resources. CT Media software offers systems integrators and applications developers faster time to market, unprecedented flexibility and scalability. Multiple client applications from different vendors can share a single CT Server, reducing cost and extending system value. Moreover, calls and information can be shared among disparate applications on a single server, providing interoperability and more intelligent and flexible transaction processing. Systems can be upgraded and expanded without the need to re-write applications. Additionally, users of the new CT Media-enabled offerings from MultiCall will benefit by gaining access to the growing number of independently developed software products supporting Microsoft's Telephony API (TAPI) and the Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum's (ECTF) S.100 standard for open computer telephony systems. The new intelligent call center applications for CT Server will be available from Lansys in early 1999. For more information on Lansys / MultiCall, visit MultiCall's Web site at www.multicall.com. About Dialogic Corporation Dialogic Corporation is the leading manufacturer of high-performance, standards-based CT components. Dialogic products are used in voice, fax, data, voice recognition, speech synthesis, call center management, and IP telephony applications in both the CPE and public network environments. The company is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, with regional headquarters in Tokyo, Brussels and Buenos Aires, and sales offices worldwide. For more information, visit the Dialogic Web site at http:\\www.dialogic.com. Trademarks: Dialogic and the Dialogic logo are registered trademarks of Dialogic Corporation. All names, products and services mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective organizations.

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (1549)	10/21/1998 9:23:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

telogy networks offers new high density pcm option October 21, 1998 GERMANTOWN, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via NewsEdge Corporation -- New Golden Gateway(TM) Feature to be Demonstrated at NetWorld + Interop Telogy Networks(R), the leading provider of embedded communications software, Tuesday announced a new High Density Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) voice packet module feature available as part of its Golden Gateway Voice over IP embedded software suite. The new High Density PCM voice packet module option will enable up to 30 uncompressed voice channels to be supported on a single digital signal processor (DSP). The main market sectors expected to benefit from this advance are the LAN-based PBX, enterprise/intranet and carrier sectors where bandwidth reduction is not required. Telogy's voice packet module is executed on a DSP which prepares analog or PCM voice samples for transmission over packet networks. Its components perform tone detection and generation, echo cancellation, voice compression, voice activity detection, jitter removal, resampling, and voice packetization. "Telogy is offering this new feature in response to demands from developers of LAN-based PBXes and other new products in non-bandwidth sensitive areas," said Nancy Goguen, Vice President of Marketing, Telogy Networks. "This is part of our continuing effort to be responsive to the rapidly evolving Internet marketplace." About Telogy Networks Telogy Networks is the leading provider of embedded communications software to global equipment manufacturers. Telogy's Golden Gateway(TM) software enables its customers to develop connected products that send real-time voice, fax, and data over packet networks (such as Internet/Intranet, Frame Relay, and ATM). As one of the few embedded software companies with both microprocessor and DSP expertise, Telogy Networks offers its customers truly comprehensive product solutions. Telogy's customers include Cisco Systems, 3Com, Nortel Networks, Touchwave, ACTI, Vegastream, Entrata, and many other leading equipment manufacturers. Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Germantown, Telogy Networks has consistently ranked as one of the "Fast 50" growth companies in the Washington, D.C. region, and among the top 500 growth companies in the United States according to both Inc. Magazine and the Deloitte & Touche LLP National Technology Fast 500. Company news and product information is available at www.telogy.com. CONTACT: Telogy Networks \| Lynn Anne Miller, \| Director, Corporate Marketing, 301/515-6618 \| lmiller@telogy.com \| or \| RMR & Associates Inc. \| Joel Greenberg, Press Liaison, 301/217-0009 ext. 15 \| jgreenberg@rmr.com