Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chris Stovin who wrote (8215)	12/2/1998 9:49:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Respond to of 18016

Anyone know about BT's "Parlay?" <<< December 2, 1998 <Picture> Tech Center British Telecom Plans to Allow Outsiders to Tap into Network By GAUTAM NAIK Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL LONDON -- For decades, British Telecommunications PLC has had sole access to the software and equipment that runs its vast phone network. Now BT, in an unprecedented move for a major phone company, is about to let outsiders tap in. British Telecom announced Wednesday a plan to allow outsiders to get at the heart of its long-protected phone network. This access, BT hopes, will persuade programmers to dream up all kinds of newfangled services to run on its public phone network instead of, say, on the Internet. Phone companies have always been wary of opening their networks to third parties, mainly for security reasons. But BT, after a two-year effort, said it has found a way to let outside desktop computers communicate with its public phone network-without compromising the security of its network. "Our industry has traditionally been surrounded by walls. We're taking a sledgehammer to those walls," said Alfred Mockett, president and chief executive officer of BT Global, a unit of BT. The British carrier plans to demonstrate the new technology, dubbed Parlay, at its laboratory in Britain this Friday, and expects to launch a commercial version in a year's time. To help develop the concept, BT has roped in a host of big-name partners, including Microsoft Corp., telecom equipment makers Siemens AG of Germany and Northern Telecom Ltd. of Canada, and DGM&S Telecom, a telecom software programmer in Philadelphia. If it works in a commercial setting, the new technology could provide customized services for phone users. So if an oil-drilling company needed to conduct an emergency video conference from an oil rig, for example, it could simply order up a high-capacity BT link via a desktop computer connected to the "intelligence" of BT's phone network. Or, with the appropriate software, a person's desktop computer could divert calls to various destinations -- a cellular phone, voice mail, a home number -- depending on the number of the calling party. Analysts say the telecommunications industry is heading toward an era when networks will be opened as industries and technologies converge. But, they say, the devil is in the details. "The networks will be opened up," said Blake Bath, a Lehman Brothers analyst. "It's just a matter of how they are opened up." BT doesn't plan to license its Parlay technology, and actually hopes it will become an open standard that anyone can use. But its interests are commercial. One benefit for BT is the additional traffic that the new applications could generate. But Parlay is also an effort to counter the threat of the Internet, which is more efficient at transmitting data than a traditional phone network and, because it uses publicly available technology, offers vast potential for entrepreneurs to devise customized applications. With Parlay, said BT's Mr. Mockett, "we can extract further value from the old-world networks." The new technology is also a step toward a world-wide network being developed by BT and its U.S. partner, AT&T Corp. An AT&T spokeswoman said the technology behind Parlay is compatible with the joint venture's plan to aid the convergence of Internet and traditional voice systems. >>>>