IDT's Net2Phone to Provide Pan-European Phone-to-Phone IP Telephony Services
October 27, 1998
HACKENSACK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via
NewsEdge Corporation -- First time IDT
offers phone-to-phone services in Europe
IDT's (NASDAQ: IDTC) Net2Phone today
announced that it has entered into an
agreement with Teledirect Communications
GmbH, a Pan-European marketing company,
to provide IDT's Net2Phone Direct
(phone-to-phone) IP telephony services at
significantly reduced rates from traditional
PTT calling.
Swiss-based Teledirect has agreed to
purchase Net2Phone Direct gateways
throughout Europe and market Net2Phone
Direct IP telephony services through retail
channels as well as enterprise clients.
Services offered will include retail pre-paid
calling cards as well as corporate voice and
fax over IP services. All calls will be routed
over dedicated IP lines using Net2Phone's
gateways and gatekeepers, ensuring toll
quality. This marks the first time that IDT will
be offering phone-to-phone services in
Europe. Currently, IDT provides
phone-to-phone IP telephony services in the
U.S. and Korea.
The initial deployment, scheduled for
commercial availability early next month, will
be in Madrid and Almeria, Spain. Teledirect
plans to deploy additional Net2Phone Direct
gateways in Switzerland, Italy, and Hungary
within 120 days, with other countries to
follow in 1999.
"IDT's Net2Phone Direct service, combined
with Teledirect's proven marketing and
communications expertise, will help
Europeans save money by placing calls over
the Internet using an ordinary telephone,
GSM phone, fax machine or PBX, and enjoy
exceptional true phone quality," said Mark
Jurkevich - IDT General Manager for Central
Europe & CIS.
"Teledirect can focus its full resources on
sales & marketing of Net2Phone Direct
Services thanks to IDT's proven carrier grade
billing & operations platform, as well as its
global termination network," said Fritz Wolff,
Teledirect's Chairman and Managing Director.
Net2Phone Direct makes IP Telephony
technology transparent to corporate and
consumer customers, while still passing on
cost savings of up to 80% for international
telephone calls and fax transmissions. The
service will be available from any dial-tone
telephone, fax machine or PBX. Quality tests
have shown Net2Phone Direct service to be
consistently superior to GSM calls. In fact,
most customers cannot distinguish a quality
difference between calls over their traditional
carrier and Net2Phone Direct.
Net2Phone Direct's pre-paid calling card
interface is typical of any traditional calling
card service. For corporate users, the
Net2Phone Direct unique EuroISDN interface
makes the service 100% transparent to a
caller from a PBX. For example, most PBXs
today require a user to press "0" to get an
outside line in Europe, and then dial the
number. A corporation that subscribes to
Net2Phone Direct can then program another
key, such as "8, " to get a Net2Phone Direct
line, and then the caller dials the desired
number.
IDT is a leading emerging multinational carrier
that combines its position as an international
telecommunications operator, its experience
as an Internet service provider and its
leading position in Internet telephony to
provide a broad range of telecommunications
services to its wholesale and retail customers
worldwide. The company provides its
customers with integrated and competitively
priced international and domestic long
distance, pre-paid calling cards, Internet
access and, through its Net2Phone product
offerings, Internet telephony services
including Net2Phone Direct, Net2Fax, and
Click2Talk. For more information about IDT's
Internet telephony services, please visit
www.net2phone.com.
Except for historical information, all of the
expectations and assumptions contained in
the foregoing are forward-looking statements
involving risks and uncertainties. Important
factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from such forward-looking
statements, include, but are not limited to,
the competitive environment for Internet
telephony, changes of rates of all related
telco rates and services, legislation that may
affect the Internet telephony industry, IDT's
ability to operate the services described on a
large scale commercial level. For additional
information regarding these and other risks
associated with the company's business refer
to the company's reports filed with the SEC.
CONTACT: IDT, Hackensack | Sarah
Hofstetter, IDT Public Relations,
201/928-2882 | Janine Kutliroff, IDT Investor
Relations, 201/928-4391 | or | Teledirect
Communications | E. Rathswohl,
+41-41-767-4020
[Copyright 1998, Business Wire]
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