VoIP News Briefs - April 26, 2000

• AT&T likes VoIP
• Chat rooms with VoIP?
• VoIP without a computer
• Testing

by Gerry Blackwell

The Shape Of Things To Come?
In a move that may foreshadow the future of the communications industry, an AT&T-led consortium has announced it will acquire a 39 percent voting stake in Hackensack NJ-based Net2Phone Inc., a leading provider of Internet telephony products and services.

"This is the ultimate proof of the transformation of telecom," said Howie Balter, CEO of Net2Phone. "AT&T, with its extended reach to every communications platform possible today, has entrusted us to enable all forms of communication with next generation IP voice technologies."

Net2Phone develops and markets IP voice and e-commerce technology and services. A pioneer of IP telephony, it was once viewed, probably mistakenly, as an underground-like alternative to the likes of AT&T.

"Net2Phone has established itself as the Internet's very own phone company," acknowledged AT&T chairman and CEO Michael Armstrong. So naturally Ma Bell wanted a piece.

AT&T plans to invest $725 million for a 51 percent interest in the consortium. Other partners are expected to purchase the remaining partnership interest. They include Liberty Media (which is part of TCI, soon to merge with AT&T) and BT (British Telecom).

Under the terms of the Net2Phone agreement, the consortium will end up with a 39 percent voting stake and a 32 percent economic stake for a total cash investment of approximately $1.4 billion.

But it also has options that if exercised could give it as much as a 59 percent voting interest and 48 percent economic interest.

"We believe this is a big win for the entire communications industry," Net2Phone's Balter said. "It brings next generation communicating into the new millennium with the companies that started it all."

And as Monty Python said, "Al-ways look on the bri-i-ght si-i-i-de of life! Too-doot, too-doot, too-doot-too-doot-too-doot!"

Voice Chat
Evoke 2000, a Louisville CO-based Internet communications service provider (formerly Vstream), recently launched a new voice chat service, Evoke Web Talk.

Web Talk allows users to participate in live voice and text exchanges over the Web. The company is also suggesting the service could be used by businesses to communicate with customers online in real-time chat rooms. Web Talk is a multi-point voice chat application, meaning that multiple Internet users can talk to each other at the same time. We're wondering what this means in the business-to-customer scenario. The customer who shouts loudest gets attention from the chat room customer service agent?

The service uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, but also has a PSTN dial-in capability. "Our Web Talk service allows users the option to use their telephones to add online voice, whereas many similar services available today don't give users this choice," says Evoke CEO Paul Berberian. Evoke hopes to distribute the service through partnerships, in particular with large Internet portals. It claims the technology used is highly scalable and can support thousands of simultaneous users.

YAP YAP YAP
In other Net2Phone news, the Internet telephony firm announced the introduction of a line of hardware products that may make it easier for customers to use IP telephony services in the future.

The new hardware line is called "YAP — Your Alternative Phone." It will be sold to consumers and enterprises through retail superstores, resellers and VARs, starting this year. Net2Phone's news release on the YAP products quotes Frost & Sullivan industry analyst John Cha saying, "The introduction of YAP products is the push of IP telephony technology into the mass market that the industry has been anticipating for a period of time."

The YAP consumer products will allow end users to connect any regular phone into Net2Phone's Internet calling network through a standard phone line or an Internet-enabled PC.

Net2Phone markets its network-based IP telephony services through a series of partnership programs, including a program that puts Net2Phone servers and gateways at ISPs' sites.

The YAP products will range in price from $40 to $2,500. Examples include the YAP Phone, a phone set that plugs into a computer's USB port. With the YAP Jack, a black box product, users plug in a regular phone and can make Internet telephone calls without a PC.

There are even YAP products for corporate users that can provide up to six telephone lines over a high-speed Internet connection.

There have been other products like these, but Net2Phone's position in the industry and distribution strength (see first story) may indeed bring them to a more mainstream market.

VoIP Quality Management
RADCOM Ltd., an Israeli network test equipment manufacturer, has announced a product that will let IP telephony service providers better manage their networks.

AudioPro II, a high-performance VoIP network analysis solution, can analyze hundreds of calls simultaneously and allows service providers to monitor and maintain the quality of audio and video connections.

The product provides continuous jitter monitoring and measurement of packet loss as well as other critical QoS parameters, letting service providers assess VoIP network performance at a glance.

"We are confident these state-of-the-art solutions will propel RADCOM as the leader in the VoIP management systems market," said RADCOM Equipment Inc. president Anthony Wiley.

RADCOM has its U.S. headquarters in Mahwah NJ.

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