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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 (1889)	11/11/1998 12:03:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Respond to of 3178

Is this going to take long, I need a pull-up-pay-phone please!!! As I was running from pull-up-payphone to pull-up-payphone, it finally occurred to me why I was having so much trouble. I, like many rural American's, can't understand the obsession of a cell-phone. Its much easier on my shallow-pockets just to pull up a few coins, quarter & dime, then to pay 3 times that for a 5 minute call, or is it? I still might be saying that if it weren't for recent events both tangible and not-so-much-so! The tangible: It was quite windy today so I used the pull-up-window pay-phone with the not-so-long receiver cord, (pull cord in window, shut till cord wrinkles)oops can't,to short. While try to, I happened to notice a new sticker etched in black that got my attention for a few seconds, it said. "You can call anywhere in the US, 4 minutes $1.00". Hey, how bout ya, get cha cheap-calls rite cheer folks! After the slight hesitation; noticing the unkept dull-scratchy surface's, the crack in the receiver,the old hanging by a thread parts, I thought "is this really going to work"? I bravely slid my 4 quarters in the friction-type slot with a sloush, click, click, sloush. I couldn't tell if there was a problem until I heard a no dial-tone coming from my ear, I should have known <gg> Anticipating a return on my coins, but only receiving 1 piece of silver, I banged again and again on the lousy slot-machine from PTC, only to receive a metal-retraction statement! Ouch! Observing emphatically, a dirty phone, a cracked receiver, and say nothing of my lost coins, it was obvious I had been duped! The not so tangible: It didn't take me long to figure out why PTC "people's telephone company" was giving great prices but yet so much grief when using MY money. It's been something I've noticed for quite sometime now that we have created this Telephony-Monster from the TELE-ACT of 96. We should have all known it was going to come to this for the next few years while sorting out the IP/SWITCH Paradigm. I hope the service side won't start to look like the early 70's, "what, service?, pump your own dam gas buddy!!! Concluding this 5 stop pay-phone episode in less than 15 minutes, I finally figured out out what the hell all this> FCC-TeleAct96-RBOCs-ILECs-ITSPs fiasco has meant! No one is going to spend a DIME more than is necessary in providing you the basic service's, unless absolutely necessary, or by force. Patience is needed for the next few years!!! As we speak, Ameritech/SBC are down-sizing in their service departments, so take the long road back in news, it won't take long to figure this one out!! <gg> Regards, Stephen

To: Stephen B. Temple who wrote (1889)	11/11/1998 12:09:00 AM
From: Stephen B. Temple	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3178

Interesting substitute for a voice switch in competitive carriers' networks at a fraction of the cost. Start-up switch targets carrier costs November 10, 1998 Network World : Westford, Mass. At its coming out party this week, well-funded start-up Castle Networks will outline its vision of what carrier services will look like in the not-too-distant future. The carrier equipment maker's vision includes allowing roaming cell phone customers to join videoconferences and enabling users to configure T-1 channels without carrier assistance. Castle also sees a time when carrier networks will be anchored by relatively inexpensive data network gear that will enable carriers to offer services at lower prices than they can via their current networks. Castle, armed with $18 million in venture funding, is working on a switch for local carriers that will act as a mediator between traditional circuit-switched voice networks and packet networks. Castle plans to introduce the switch in January. Company officials say the Castle switch will be able to translate signaling and management information as well as traffic between voice and data networks. So, for example, customers buying IP phone service will be able to get features such as caller ID because the Castle box will be able to access intelligent calling features that are part of the current public switched voice network. Such sharing of features between networks is not possible today. "Just try making a 911 call from your PC. It can't be done. That's because the [911 intelligence] is up there in the circuit-switched world," says Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects in Washington, D.C. The Castle box will substitute for a voice switch in competitive carriers' networks at a fraction of the cost. Castle's switch will cost $150,000, while a Class 5 voice switch typically costs more than $1 million. That kind of savings will make it possible for new carriers to offer less costly services, says Steve Kelly, Castle's executive vice president. From their website> castlenetworks.com ST