See how you can save up to 90% by using voice over IP services and pay only a fraction of the cost for your call, or even make FREE calls (in restricted areas only).
Voip.com Limited Offer $19.95/mo. First Month Free & Free shipping and $199/yr. No Setup Fee, Free Shipping. How it Works
Voip works just like a regular phone with just one key difference — how the phone call actually gets to your telephone. Instead of using the high priced telephone company's wiring, Voip routes your phone calls directly to your telephone using your high speed internet connection. You hear a dial tone and make your phone calls just like you've always done. What's changed is that you don't pay a big bill to use the phone company's wires.
Skype - The whole world can talk for free.
Skype is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. It’s free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers.
VoiceEclipse is a comprehensive broadband VoIP phone service delivered via your high-speed Internet connection which will save you money, deliver outstanding digital quality, and provide numerous features. You may keep your existing telephone number and use your broadband Internet connection to avoid the rising costs of traditional phone service.
Real phone calls, real savings.
Use your regular home phone. Your calls sound the same. You get all the features you'd expect from a home phone company. It's just your bill that's different—it's a lot smaller! Choose an EarthLink trueVoice plan, and start saving money on all your local and long-distance calling.
WebPhone Someone Today!WebPhone Call anyone, anywhere from your PC with WebPhone! You’ll save with incredible low rates, free WebPhone to WebPhone calling and our easy to use software.
Free, easy to use software
Free WebPhone to WebPhone Calls
PC to Phone calls starting at 1.9¢ a minute
Pay as you go
NO Monthly fee
What you'll receive with the basic WebPhone package
With WebPhone's basic package, you receive free software, PC to Phone calls for as little as 1.9˘ a minute and free WebPhone to WebPhone calls! You can download the WebPhone software on as many computers as you wish -- just simply login with your personal account information to make calls. You can also check your account balance, add funds and review your calls at WebPhone's Online Account Center. A WebPhone Calling Card feature can be added to your plan for a low monthly fee so you can make calls at low rates from any phone -- even your cell phone.
Verizon VoiceWing - Broadband Phone ServiceVoiceWingSM lets you chat away to your heart's content with unlimited local and long distance calling anywhere in the U.S., Puerto Rico and now, Canada. If you're not a big talker, then perhaps VoiceWing 500 is right for you.
And, just for signing up, we'll give you $10 toward your Extra Services Account. You can use it to make any international and directory assistance calls which aren't included in your monthly rate. VoiceWingSM gives you access to great features available when you use the Internet for your phone service, for example choosing your own area code. Plus, you can still take advantage of all the calling features you're used to, like caller ID, call waiting and more.
The VoiceLinesm SolutionSince 1995, Net2Phone has been a pioneer in providing high-quality VoIP services throughout the world. VoiceLine is broadband phone service that uses Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling to establish and manage voice calls on all types of high-speed data networks. VoiceLine enables high-speed data providers to offer their subscribers residential broadband telephony solutions. VoiceLine is a centrally managed and hosted solution that provides local, long distance and international calling. VoiceLine enables integration of back office systems, including the billing platform, into the operator’s infrastructure.
Lingo - VOIP and High Speed Internet Service
With Lingo's VoIP Phone service plans, you'll have everything you're used to with your current home phone system and a lot more. There's nothing to miss except for your large monthly phone bill. After installation, you're ready to make and receive calls over your high-speed Internet
FonVantage Quality VoIP Discriminating consumers choose FonVantage because of its stability and reliability. No other provider backs their service with a 99.9% network uptime guarantee! FonVantage has built a nationwide NPLS backbone (carrier class network) from the ground up, which allows them control of the network your calls use, rather than you being at the whim of the Internet. FonVantage also has the most robust features list of any VoIP we've seen... check them out for yourself!
Sun Rocket Local and Unlimited Long Distance
SunRocket Signature Service comes packed with everything you need automatically included in the Bottom-Line Price - you can get this great service for only $199/year - that's under $17 per month...
iConnectHere Internet Phone
World leader in Internet Phone Service allows you to save up to 90% on all your local, long distance, and international calls. Get rates as low as 1˘ per minute to the US, Unlimited monthly callingavailable, or pay as you go with no commitment.. Plans start at $4.95!
Packet 8 Broadband Phone Services
Get unlimited local and long distance broadband phone service with residential plans as low as $19.99/month and business plan starting from $34.99. Extensive list of features includes number portability, great international plans, video plans and more...
Dadoe™ is a leading edge technology that transforms your high speed Internet connection into a regular phone line. But unlike old Internet phone technology, you don't need headphones, software or even a computer. You simply connect your existing phone to your ADSL/cable modem using our adapter and you can start making and receiving calls right away. That's all! No technician appointments! Here's an illustration of how it works:
Opex Internet Voice Unlimited Calling from $14.99
FREE: Local Calling, Instate Calling, Out of State Calling, and Calls to Canada. OPEX is an experienced company with outstanding customer service and NO termination fees or Contracts.....A Great Value!
My Phone Company Unlimited calls for only $24.99/month
One bill from one company with one low price for all your calls to anywhere in USA and Canada with lots of free features, as low as $24.99 and absolutely NO additional surcharges!
BroadBand Phone Service - Get the Most out of your phone service ViaTalk provides the most cost effective, complete broadband phone service package available to United States residential and business customers. Our unparalleled 24/7 technical support team coupled with our state of the art fiber optic network ensures you that you will have the highest available quality of service.
The ViaTalk team proudly stands behind our product. If you are not 100% happy with it after 14 days, return it for a full refund with no questions asked. We look forward to working with you to provide you with top notch phone service at a fraction of the price of our competitors.
We invite you to take a look around our website. Take a moment to look over our included features that come standard with every account. Give our technical support team a call and see how quickly and easily you reach a ViaTalk customer care specialist waiting to show you what separates ViaTalk from all other phone service providers.
We provide use of an IP analog telephone adapter
that plugs directly into your Cable/DSL modem or home router–
this includes advanced Quality of Service (QoS) features to make
sure your voice service still sounds good in times of high network
traffic.
All you do is plug in a telephone and cable or DSL modem
and start calling! You dial as you would normally. When
people call you, they just dial your new
Standard Voice
telephone number (or you can keep your current phone number) and
your phone rings as usual.
You will be able to take advantage of a flat rate plan
that includes unlimited nationwide long distance being
handled by
1TouchTone’s
own network of datacenters throughout the
United States and being carried over the most redundant network
in the world, the Internet. You’ll also be able to access
all of your current usage, billing, and even your voicemails via
the web, so even if you’re not near your phone, you can get
your messages.
In addition to this, you will be able to take advantage of many
other advanced features made available through the state of the
art technology that
1TouchTone brings to you. Features such as the ability
to take your
1TouchTone provided adapter anywhere in the world,
plug it into an internet connection and phone, and receive calls
like you never left your home or office. You’ll also be able
to get virtual phone numbers for your account using area codes in
any market that
1TouchTone provides service. This inexpensively allows
you to have business presences in multiple markets instantly, as
well as enables residential users to have a local number in distant
cities where friends and family live.
With any plan, all incoming calls are free as well as calls
to other
1TouchTone subscribers. You can easily manage your
account or add new features through
1TouchTone’s website which
gives you unheard of control and flexibility with your phone service.
Save With Broadband PhoneSave as much as 80% off your existing phone bill with our broadband phone service. Enjoy super low rates when you call abroad. And with our service all in-network calls are free, and all incoming calls are free...
Setup is Easy
Just plug our equipment into your local network, and connect your touchtone phone. It's that easy. Your calls will be sent over our broadband phone network to anywhere in the world.
Connecting With Broadband Voice
We provide you with a Digital Phone Adapter, which is a device that connects a standard phone to your internet outlet. This turns your corded or cordless phone into an internet-enabled phone. During a call, your voice is digitized and then relayed over your broadband internet connection to our communications platform, which then routes your call to its intended destination. All this is done seamlessly, and with a high degree of sound quality, making it seem like a traditional phone call.
By leveraging the versatility of broadband networking, you are able to bypass the costly local phone line infrastructure and realize significant savings.
Make and receive phone calls over your broadband connection!
No need for headphones or a computer! Just pick up a normal touch-tone phone, dial a phone number and start talking! Our broadband phone service uses the latest technology to send your calls over the Internet to bring you the greatest features, save you money and still give you stable, reliable phone service!
Service Highlights
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
Free Virtual Number
Free Number Portability
No Signup Contracts
G.711 & G.729 codec support
800 Toll-Free Access Number
30-Day Money Back Guarantee
Need help? email us or call toll free at (877) 356-8738
^ Where Available. Number transfer takes up to 10-14 days from customer authorization.
†Rates exclude: broadband service, activation, regulatory recovery fee, 911 fees, premium services, equipment, Vonage compatible equipment, disconnect fee, taxes, and shipping. International calls billed/min. Credit card & high-speed Internet required. Satellite TV & alarm systems may require land line. Not compatible with AOL cable. See Terms of Service for details.
Travel Deals
Cruises, hotels, airfares, car rentals and more...
Internet phone provider Vonage has teamed with Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, to spur the use of Net phone technology over the next generation of wireless networking gear.
Vonage now offers a $50 mail-in rebate on the Linksys WRT54GP2, which among other things is a wireless access point that connects at 54mbps, as well as an adapter for making Internet calls over a traditional home phone. The rebate is only available after 90 days of Vonage service. The Linksys device also contains a switch and a router for sharing Net access among four devices.
The Linksys device costs about $130 before the rebate. Vonage service plans start at $15 per month for unlimited local calling. Unlimited local and long-distance service costs $30 a month and is the company's most popular plan. Vonage has 250,000 subscribers.
This is the first time Vonage has partnered to market its Net phone service alongside wireless networking equipment that uses 802.11g, a standard that is compatible with and five times faster than its cousin, the widely adopted 802.11b standard. The move offers little surprise: 802.11g is expected to supplant 802.11b. Meanwhile, Vonage and other providers of Internet phone services say that, as the speed of any network increases, so does the quality of the Internet phone-calling experience.
Net phone plans are typically cheaper than those offered through the local phone company. That's because Internet phone calls don't travel over the heavily taxed and regulated traditional phone networks; rather, they are broken into bits of data and addressed using Internet Protocol, the backbone of the Internet. Many providers, such as Vonage, provide service that uses the Internet, which can degrade the calls' quality. The other variety of provider sends calls over privately owned IP networks.
Also Monday, Vonage competitor CallVantage said its plans and hardware are now available through Buy.com.
Comcast taps Microsoft for Seattle set-tops
By Ina Fried http://www.news.com/ Mon Nov 08 13:09:00 PST 2004 Comcast said on Monday that it will make Microsoft set-top box software available to more than half a million customers in the Seattle area.
The announcement follows up on a pledge earlier this year by the two companies to broadly deploy the software maker's Microsoft TV Foundation Edition software. Comcast has taken a license to use Microsoft's software in 5 million homes.
"Today marks an important milestone in the overall partnership between Microsoft and Comcast," said Moshe Lichtman, a corporate vice president in the Microsoft TV unit. "It's also the first large-scale deployment of our software in the U.S. market."
Analysts have said the Comcast effort could be critical to Microsoft's future in the U.S. cable market. Lichtman agreed that the Comcast effort will be important and that others will be watching.
Microsoft has been pursuing TV dreams for years, at least since its 1997 purchase of WebTV. But the company has largely scaled back its ambitions of offering PC-like services such as e-mail and Web surfing via the television. The Microsoft TV unit now focuses primarily on delivering video on demand and other television services that cable operators want to bring to their mainstream subscribers.
Microsoft has invested billions in the cable companies as part of its television efforts, including $1 billion in Comcast.
"Comcast is a leader in cable," Lichtman said in a conference call announcing the deal. "So obviously any decisions such as this with regards to our software are very fundamental and will influence other operators."
The primary feature of the Microsoft software is an advanced program guide that can power digital video recording and video-on-demand services. The software also allows the display of some news and information content as well as basic gaming. Some simple games are included, with more planned for early next year.
Later this month, Comcast said, it plans to offer the software to those with new high-end set-top boxes that have a built-in dual-tuner digital video recorder. Next it will offer the software to its high-definition television customers. Then, in the new year, it will roll out the software to all of its digital cable customers in the Seattle area.
Comcast has more than 1 million subscribers in the Seattle area, but almost half of them have basic cable connections rather than the digital cable set-top boxes required to run the Microsoft software.
Not the only game in town
Microsoft is still competing for Comcast's business with iGuide software developed jointly by Comcast with Gemstar-TV Guide.
"We are launching the iGuide in other markets as we speak," said Mark Hess, senior vice president of digital television for Comcast. "We have always had a strategy of working with multiple technology partners. We think it is good for us and it is good for innovation and competition."
The two companies are also working jointly to add features to future versions of the Microsoft software and are also looking at collaborating beyond the set-top box.
Future efforts could take advantage of the high-speed Internet connection that many cable customers have coming in. Hess said customers might find it easier to search for a movie by typing on their PC and would like a way to make a choice and send it to their television . Or an alert on the PC could remind customers of an upcoming television show they want to see.
"There's a lot of things we've thought about, nothing that's really concrete," Hess said.
Although today the television services from cable and satellite are very similar, analysts say that the two-way, high-speed connection could afford cable a key advantage.
"If they do it well, the cable side of the business will have a substantial advantage because of the two-way pipe that cable offers," said Jimmy Schaeffler, analyst with The Carmel Group, said. Schaeffler added that additional services could help cable operators to beef up their offerings to subscribers and finally take advantage of a key part of its arsenal, the potential for viewers to interact with the cable service.
CNET News.com's Richard Shim contributed to this report.
An adapter made by Siemens to extend Internet access to cordless phones is now loaded with Skype Net phone software, allowing the same phone to make calls using the Internet or the traditional phone network.
The coupling of Internet and traditional telephony in a single phone is hard to find now, but it could become more common in years to come if, as expected, more calls flow over the unregulated Internet rather than heavily taxed traditional phone networks.
For decades, the only way to sell local phone services was over the local phone network, which is privately owned. But Skype is among a wave of new companies offering voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which uses the Internet to make calls. By using VoIP technology, any broadband connection, whether cable, satellite, cell phone, Wi-Fi or WiMax, can become a home phone line.
While there are several jury-rigged methods out there that could achieve the same results, the Siemens-Skype adapter stands out nonetheless because of the pedigree of those involved in its creation. Siemens is among the largest phone manufacturers in the world, and Skype is the most popular VoIP service provider in the world, with more than 1 million users.
"Siemens is delivering a giant step forward for Internet telephony for the residential market," Niklas Zennstrom, Skype's chief executive, said in a statement.
As with most other Internet phone service providers, Skype is also trying to be compatible with as many Internet-enabled devices as possible. VoIP started on PCs, which aren't always well-suited for phone calling. Personal digital assistants and cell phones are a new favorite target of many VoIP providers. Zennstrom said he believes Skype's effort regarding cordless phones is a pioneering one.
The adapter is not for the price-sensitive and is available only in Europe for now. The Siemens Gigaset M34USB adapter is $129, while the six compatible Siemens Gigaset phones cost between $65 and $260. To spur sales, Siemens offers the adapter along with 120 minutes of SkypeOut, a Skype service that lets people place calls to traditional phones from their own high-speed Internet connections. Skype phone calls that are made among PCs and which stay on the Internet are free.
In another major development, Skype on Tuesday also made public a method for programmers writing applications to involve Skype software in some way. "We are keen to watch the world's innovative developer community integrate the Skype application," Zennstrom said in a statement.
Nortel Networks said Tuesday it is dropping a copyright infringement lawsuit against Arbinet's Thexchange, which buys and sells bandwidth and telephone voice minutes. Arbinet agreed to pay Nortel an undisclosed amount as part of the settlement, according to Nortel.
In its lawsuit filed in July, Nortel accused Arbinet of violating copyrights and exceeding the usage level permitted under Nortel's software licensing agreement. Nortel also accused the company of failing to meet contractual obligations for the purchase of its switching equipment. The case had been pending in a U.S. district court in Alexandria, Va. When the case was originally filed, Nortel had asked the court for an injunction to force Arbinet to stop using its software. It also had asked that Arbinet pay damages, which had been estimated at roughly $6 million.
Verizon Communications on Tuesday said it has extended its 3mbps DSL service to 16 more regions in its geographical footprint. The speed tier, which includes 768kbps upstream, will cost $39.95 a month and require a local or long-distance phone package to qualify.
The new regions affected include California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Until now, users in these areas have been offered DSL service of up to 1.5mbps.
A California man who allegedly duped America Online customers into disclosing their credit card information over the Web was arrested on wire fraud and other charges Thursday.
According to the charges, Jeffrey Brett Goodin of Azusa, Calif., used the fraudulently obtained information to make unauthorized charges using the credit and debit cards of his victims. He allegedly tricked his victims, all America Online subscribers, by sending e-mails urging them to "update" their AOL billing information or lose their service--a method known as phishing.
As is typical with such schemes, the e-mails allegedly sent by Goodin appeared to have come from AOL's billing department, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles that announced the arrest. The e-mails, which were sent by the thousands, directed recipients to phony Web sites operated by the sender, and prompted potential victims to enter personal information, including credit and debit card numbers.
Goodin, 45, is charged with wire fraud and the unauthorized use of an access device, i.e., a credit card. If convicted of both offenses, he faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison. The FBI, the Secret Service and police in Ontario, Calif., all helped investigate the case.
Phishers, who lure victims by posing as legitimate companies, have become a major scourge of the Internet along with spam, viruses and spyware. A recent study showed that online fraudsters launched a record number of phishing scams last year, with nearly 17,000 unique e-mail-based fraud attacks detected in November alone, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group. Roughly one in four U.S. Internet users is a target of a phishing scam, according to another recent study.
The perpetrators are hard to catch, but efforts to bust them have intensified lately. Aided by Microsoft, Bulgarian police nabbed eight people last week who allegedly targeted MSN customers in an international phishing operation.
Bolivian leader's sweater an Internet hit
By Reuters http://www.news.com
Thu Jan 26 18:11:00 PST 2006 Newly elected Bolivian President Evo Morales' striped sweater is making another world tour--this time on the Internet.
La Paz-based online shop BoliviaMall.com said Thursday that customers in more than 20 countries have bought replicas of the alpaca sweater that shot to fame when Morales wore it on a tour this month to greet leaders including Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The people who are buying the sweater are sending messages saying they support us and 'Viva Bolivia,"' said general manager Percy Prieto.
The store has sold more than 200 of the blue, red and gray striped sweaters, mainly in Spain, at up to $49 a piece, Prieto said.
Morales, a leftist whose rise to power was based on his leadership of coca growers and opposition to U.S.-funded eradication of the crop, was sworn in as Bolivia's first indigenous president this week after his Dec. 18 election victory.
The 46-year-old bachelor has eschewed wearing a suit and tie for meetings, preferring to maintain his own informal style.
The move raised eyebrows in Europe, but many Bolivians say the former coca farmer, who herded llamas as a boy, is only staying true to his humble roots.
"SpongeBob SquarePants," "South Park" and "Punk'd" are among 14 popular TV shows now available for download from the iTunes media service under a new agreement between Apple Computer and Viacom's MTV Networks, the companies said Thursday.
The agreement bolsters Apple's market-leading iTunes service as an alternative conduit for television programming, adding a range of shows from children's animated hit "Dora the Explorer" to the violent and often vulgar "Jackass." Like others on iTunes, the programs will cost $1.99 each.
Videos downloaded from the iTunes Music Store can be played back on a personal computer or an Apple iPod portable music player. Some 8 million have been downloaded since videos were added to the online store late last year.
Walt Disney Co. was the first media company to make a deal with Apple to sell video on iTunes in October, starting with episodes of such hits as "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." NBC Universal followed in December, with "Law & Order," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and others.
Under the new agreement, Viacom's MTV Networks will also offer shows including practical joke show "Punk'd," "Stand-Up"--a program from its Comedy Central network--and reality programs "Laguna Beach" and "Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Gauntlet 2."
That's the question Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, wants answered when it comes to people listening to popular portable music players like Apple Computer's iPod.
On Thursday, the U.S. lawmaker asked the National Institutes of Health to review research to determine if the devices are contributing to premature hearing loss as well as recommend what people can do to prevent it from happening.
"Consumers need to have good information about the potential health concerns posed by these devices," Markey said in a letter to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
Markey said that noise above 85 decibels can cause hearing loss depending on the length of exposure and he cited a recent Washington Post article that said Apple has declined to reveal how loud its iPods can go.
All of Apple's iPod players come with ear buds that fit just inside the outer ear, rather than traditional headphones that go over the ear. Apple's devices include batteries that last for several hours.
An NIH representative was not immediately available for comment.
The question about hearing loss from portable music devices is not new, but the issue has re-emerged amid soaring sales of players by Apple and other technology companies.
Apple, which dominates the market for the devices, alone sold 14 million iPods during the Christmas holiday quarter and 42 million since October 2001, when it introduced the device. A company representative was not immediately available to comment.
Sony and Thomson's RCA also sell music players, and Cingular Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, offers Apple's music software in a cell phone.
"People don't want to give up their portable music devices," Markey said in his letter. "However, they need to know whether they are at risk for premature hearing loss and how to protect themselves."
The nation's top telephone regulators are widely expected to decide on Tuesday to further deregulate Internet phone services.
States would be barred from imposing telecommunications regulations on Net phone providers, which treat calls no differently than any other application on the Internet, according to those familiar with the Federal Communications Commission.
That class of operators includes Vonage Holdings, which asked the FCC for just such a designation last May, plus Verizon Communications, AT&T and dozens of other commercial Internet providers, according to those familiar with the FCC's thinking.
"This is going to be huge," said Jeff Pulver, co-founder of Free World Dialup, a free PC-to-PC telephone service provider that won exemption from federal and state regulations last year. "Otherwise, anyone who wanted to offer Internet phone services could be subject to 51 different sets of state regulations."
A tougher regulatory stance may hurt projections that VoIP services will expand from the 1 million homes foreseen at year's end to about 10 million by the end of the decade. As traditional phone carriers see more local calls flow over the Internet rather than their own more expensive networks, they have been adding their own VoIP-based services to lure business customers away from those companies that specialize in Net phone technology.
Complicating matters somewhat is what Vonage Chief Financial Officer John Rego described Monday as a "zero hour" request by Time Warner Cable and other cable providers to be included in the FCC's Tuesday decision. Cable providers, most of which now sell telephone plans, fear that they'll be left out of the ruling, because their services run over privately owned and operated networks, not the public Internet.
"Basing (the decision) on whether a particular service uses the public Internet or a managed IP network would unfairly favor certain business models," a group of cable lobbyists, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, wrote in a letter to the FCC.
An FCC spokesman could not be reached Monday for comment. Traditionally, the FCC tips its hand about a week before each of its monthly meetings, when its agendas are published. If an issue is on the agenda, it has typically been approved by the commission, though sometimes with drastic changes. As of Monday, the Vonage petition was still slated for discussion.
Also, a recent comment from FCC Chairman Michael Powell suggests his attitude toward the issue. He said during a public appearance two weeks ago that "to hold that packets flying across national and international digital networks should be subject to state commission economic regulatory authority is to dumb down the Internet to match the limited vision of government officials."
AT&T chief refuses to 'miss' VoIP
August 30, 2004, 9:00 AM PT
By Dawn Kawamoto and Ben Charny
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
David Dorman, AT&T's chief executive, is determined not to let history repeat itself.
Ma Bell--under prior management in the 1990s--let the Internet revolution slip from its grasp, as companies like America Online, EarthLink and MSN grabbed the lead in providing Internet access.
Now amid cutthroat pricing, rival MCI's emergence from bankruptcy, and a regulatory climate that led AT&T to step away from consumer telephone service, the company is relying on voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, as one of the tools to accelerate growth in its business segment.
That segment, which comprises about 75 percent of AT&T's approximately $30 billion in annual revenue, may not receive a huge windfall in revenue from Net telephony. But VoIP, which allows businesses and consumers to make inexpensive phone calls via the Internet, plays a significant role in AT&T's long-term strategy of being the next HBO-like service to cable companies and the Baby Bells.
Dorman, who recently met with reporters and editors from CNET News.com, talked about his company's views and strategy on VoIP and AT&T's CallVantage program.
Q: How would you describe the competitive landscape for VoIP?
A: It's a battle between the cable guys and the Bells. People talk about it being a duopoly. It's not a duopoly. It's asymmetrical. The cable guys are focused on video and the Bell guys are focused on VoIP, and they're converging at the broadband level.
In our view--and we can argue about the timing, three, five, eight years--the broadband pipe will be the high-value piece. That's because applications will run on that broadband pipe and VoIP--as much as the Bell guys don't like to hear this, VoIP is an application.
It's a battle between the cable guys
and the Bells.
The cable guys look at VoIP and are really in a dilemma now. Is VoIP a feature of a broadband network like e-mail? And we all know where e-mail went; it got free really quickly. Or is it a business itself that they can enter into incrementally to add value to their broadband business? My bet is VoIP is becoming a feature that's going to be chargeable, but it's not going to be $40 per subscriber. It's going to be $15 or $20 a subscriber with a lot of features.
How large is the VoIP market, and what are your expectations for its growth?
Today, there are about 26 million to 30 million broadband households and about 1 million of them are VoIP users. But that's growing rapidly. This quarter, for the first time, the net subscriber adds for DSL exceeded the net adds for cable. I think it's quite likely that the penetration of VoIP within the broadband segment will be 60 or 70 percent over time because it's such an easy thing to do. If you can pay $19.95 for local and long-distance calls, 10-way personal conferencing, follow-and-locate-me services, and you make your life simpler, you probably would do it if it works reasonably well.
Now that we can see that the technology has advanced itself, VoIP is coming into its own. It's a viable substitute for wired-line telephony, especially in a world where wireless is available as a backup. If your cable modem croaks, or the power goes out, you have a cell phone. This means you're not lifeline-dependent upon VoIP.
Where does AT&T see itself in the VoIP market?
We want to create a growth business around VoIP as an a la carte supplier using the AT&T brand as the hook. We think that brand compares favorably to Vonage and all the different guys out there. We also think we understand the downstream networking requirements better than they do. Vonage has a platform around the management of VoIP. But they don't manage the network. They don't manage the assets. We think we understand the end-to-end quite well.
I'm trying to create a model, a non-threatening, my-enemy-is-my-friend model. It's one that says you can go out and build a voice network, invest in first-generation software technology, buy a bunch of Cisco routers, spend $200 million to $300 million and learn how to tie this together. Or you can rent it from us. We'd sell it like HBO. I'm trying to create an HBO/ESPN model for the cable guys, only friendlier. In other words, you can co-brand it, you can sell it as an AT&T-branded voice channel, you can own the customer, and I provide the deployment. I can make money as a wholesaler, a co-brander, a sort of Intel Inside. We're becoming the world's high-scale, high-quality, high-feature applications service provider for VoIP.
The notion that the cable guys are going to replicate that by buying a whole bunch of Cisco stuff and soft switches, and then go "Yeeha, we're going to be in the VoIP business" doesn't make good sense. Why bother?
If I'm right about how this fight is going to take off with the cable guys and the Bells, investing more capital to do VoIP is a poor choice for the cable guys, versus investing more and better ways to merchandise their content and sell the heck out of broadband. The battle between the telcos and cable is all about who gets the broadband pipe.
Earlier this month, AT&T announced joint-marketing agreements with a number of cable companies for your CallVantage VoIP offering. Can you elaborate?
What we were finding was 40 percent of the people who called us about CallVantage said they saw our commercial and thought it was cool. They said they wanted to get it, but then we found they didn't high-speed cable modem or DSL, are you interested?" And they'd say, "Yes."
I needed a way to fulfill that. The cable guys like to sell broadband, so it seemed like a pretty logical thing to (enter a joint-marketing agreement). We also asked the Bells. We said, "We get these calls, would you like us to sell them DSL?" The Bells said, "We don't want to talk to you, we're not interested, leave us alone," while the cable guys said, "Heck yeah, we'd love to sell more cable modems."
With this joint-marketing agreement and the money you're putting into marketing your CallVantage service, do you feel like you're carrying the cable guys' water?
There is no question they are getting some benefit, but you need to think about how big this market will be. My sense is this will be a really big market and you only get one chance to seize leadership. I think AT&T made a terrible mistake with WorldNet, watching AOL, MSN, EarthLink and Mindspring run away with the dial-up access business when it had a national network and could have offered it for $15. It sat there and said, "We really don't understand why people would ever do this." I was at Pacific Bell back in those days, knocking myself out trying to get into the dial-up business because I was convinced it would be a huge thing. AT&T just ignored it.
I'm not going to let that happen with VoIP. VoIP is a transformational application. Having run a Bell company, been through the building of Sprint, working at PointCast and getting a sense of all this, I sit here looking at people paying a Bell company $112 for two lines, not including long distance, and I can sell them VoIP for (a promotional monthly fee of) $19.95, plus the cost of broadband with better features and more capabilities. I'm not going to miss that.
Published: April 20, 2004, 11:11 AM PDT
By Ben Charny and Marguerite Reardon
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
update A price war is brewing in the world of Internet telephone services, as providers try to win over consumers who now have a host of options when it comes to making calls.
On Thursday, both AT&T and Vonage said they were slashing prices on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) plans beginning Friday. AT&T said its CallVantage service will cost $29.99 per month, down from $34.99 per month. The rate will apply to all existing customers and includes unlimited local and long-distance calling in the United States and Canada. AT&T also will offer a month of free service to new customers who are signing on until Jan. 31, 2005.
Vonage said it is lowering the price of its Premium Unlimited plan--which includes unlimited calls anywhere in the United States and Canada--by $5 to $24.99 per month. The company also said it is upgrading customers who were on its $24.99-per-month Unlimited Local plan to Premium Unlimited.
VoIP pricing
Provider: AT&T
Plan: CallVantage. Unlimited local and long-distance calling in the U.S. and Canada.
Price: $29.99 per month, starting Friday. One month of free service to new customers who sign up by Jan. 31, 2005.
Provider: Vonage
Plan: Premium Unlimited. Unlimited calls anywhere in the U.S. and Canada.
Price: $24.99 per month, starting Friday. Customers who had been on Vonage's $24.99-per-month Unlimited Local plan are being upgraded to Premium Unlimited.
Provider: 8x8
Plan: Packet8 Freedom Unlimited. Unlimited calling to anyone in the 50 U.S. states and Canada and to Packet8 subscribers worldwide.
Price: $19.95 per month.
Provider: Primus
Plan: Lingo Unlimited. Unlimited minutes each month to speak with anyone in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe.
Price: $19.95 per month. One month free offer.
Daryl Schoolar, an analyst at research firm In-Stat/MDR, said the price cuts aren't surprising, given VoIP companies are fighting a range of foes besides each other. Cable companies and traditional regional phone companies are offering bundles of services, he said, and mobile phone service providers frequently include long distance in their packages.
"It's a very competitive market" for VoIP players, Schoolar said. "Cell phones are probably the biggest competition."
Internet telephone service provider 8x8, which sells a VoIP package that includes unlimited calling in the United States and Canada for $19.95, has no immediate plans to trim its pricing, said company CEO Bryan Martin. "We're still the low-price leader," he said. "Before we lower our price, someone's got to come in below us."
VoIP is technology that lets people talk over a broadband Internet connection, rather than a traditional telephone line. Net telephony packages also offer features found in traditional telephone services such as call waiting and forwarding. Because VoIP calls are placed over the Internet, they are generally less expensive than calls sent over the heavily taxed and regulated traditional phone network.
AT&T's price cut underscores its push to spark growth in its Net phone service, as VoIP becomes more central to its long-term plans. The phone giant in July said it would stop selling voice services to new customers due to changes in regulatory law, but added that it would aggressively market less-regulated VoIP services.
"Pricing the service for the holiday shopping season fits our expansion strategy and makes AT&T CallVantage Service even more affordable, which is great news for consumers as we give them more of what they want for less," Cathy Martine, AT&T senior vice president for Internet Telephony, said in a statement.
Recently, America Online confirmed that it is working on a Net telephony plan as well.
AT&T also on Thursday said it has begun shipping a "do it yourself" guide for multiple phone connections in homes, although technical help is available for a fee.
Published: September 29, 2004, 8:45 PM PDT
By Evan Hansen and Richard Shim
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Internet phone service SIPphone has charged Vonage Holdings and retailer Fry's Electronics with false advertising for failing to adequately disclose limitations on hardware that allows phone calls to be placed over a broadband connection.
At stake are routers and adapters manufactured by Cisco Systems subsidiary Linksys that allow standard phones to be used to make calls over the Internet. In a California state lawsuit filed Monday in San Diego, SIPphone charges that product packaging and advertisements do not make it clear the Linksys products work only in conjunction Internet phone services provided by Vonage.
The suit cites product packaging and online ads from retailers including Outpost.com. The products in question are the $59 Linksys Phone Adapter, which plugs into Wi-Fi equipment, such as a router, and allows a consumer to connect a phone to the broadband connection to make Internet phone calls. The $89 Broadband Router includes two phone ports, which would allow two phones to place calls over the Net at once.
"The box Linksys and Vonage uses to market and sell the PAP2 adapter and Vonage service does not disclose that the adapter is locked to prevent it from working with any other service," according to the lawsuit.
The company is seeking to prevent Vonage and Fry's from further alleged false advertising. SIPphone is not seeking monetary damages, other than legal fees.
Vonage did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment late Wednesday. Linksys representatives said they were not aware of the suit and declined to comment.
Linksys and Vonage announced a deal in August to co-brand Internet phone routers and adapters. Under the deal, Linksys agreed to develop products that connect to Vonage's services out of the box. The companies said they expected the arrangement to make it easier for consumers to initiate Internet phone service by setting everything up in advance. Linksys also has similar deals with AT&T and Verizon.
"Right now the boxes are locked to particular service providers," Linksys President Charlie Giancarlo said Wednesday at a press event in San Francisco announcing the Verizon deal. "But we could get to the point when a box is independent of service because both models have benefits to both consumers and service providers."
Vonage has a similar deal with Netgear, which is expected to see products on store shelves by October.
The co-branded devices sell for about $20 less than competing routers and adapters, according to the lawsuit.
SIPphone founder and CEO Michael Robertson said SIPphone decided not to sue Linksys because they believe Vonage has been in charge of marketing the service and striking deals with retailers. As a result, they believe Vonage is primarily responsible for ensuring the limits of the hardware are adequately disclosed.
He added that SIPphone targeted Fry's in an effort to ensure retailers act responsibly.
Internet phone, or so-called voice over Internet Protocol services, have been widely advertised by Vonage and others as a cheap alternative to traditional phone services offered through the Bells.
Roberston said SIPphone filed the suit after receiving complaints from SIPphone customers who found they could not use certain Linksys products to access its service. Robertson said these customers were surprised to find they would be charged a monthly fee from Vonage in order to use the device. Furthermore, the device could not be used in conjunction with any other Net phone services.
"This is the first example of networking hardware tied to a service," Robertson said. "I think it's a bad direction to go."
SIPphone is Roberston's latest venture, following online music site MP3.com and Linux desktop operating system developer Linspire.
Roberston said SIPphone has signed up about 250,000 customers for the free SIPphone service, both on hardware that connects ordinary phones to the Net as well as software that uses a PC.
SIPphone charges fees only for connecting its customers to the traditional phone network. Calls between SIPphone users are free. In addition, the company has been striking interconnection deals with universities, allowing calls between SIPphone customers and campuses for free. He said the University of California at San Diego signed such a deal last week.
"In the world we see, monthly fees (for telephone services) go away," he said.
Published: September 29, 2004, 11:26 AM PDT
By Marguerite Reardon and Richard Shim
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
SAN FRANCISCO--Verizon Communications, one of the largest local phone providers in the country, is the latest carrier to select Linksys to provide Internet telephony to consumers.
Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, announced on Wednesday at a press event here that Verizon will use Linksys home networking adapters with Verizon's VoiceWing broadband phone service. The new VoiceWing service allows customers to use their DSL (digital subscriber line) or cable broadband connection to place telephone calls over the Internet rather than over the traditional telephone network.
Customers that use voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology can call anywhere in the United States for a flat monthly rate. Because VoIP calls are placed over the Net, they're free from the government regulations and heavy taxes to which traditional telephone networks are subject.
The Linksys phone adapter is a small piece of equipment that connects a customer's phone to the broadband network. It converts analog telephone calls into digital packets that travel over the Internet. It also offers various calling and call management features.
The consumer VoIP market has picked up momentum over the past several months, as traditional telephone carriers have entered the market. Verizon introduced the VoiceWing broadband phone service back in July. AT&T launched its CallVantage service in March.
Linksys has capitalized on the VoIP frenzy by securing similar deals with other providers, including AT&T and Vonage.
"Residential VoIP is going to be the biggest growth opportunity since wireless," said Charles Giancarlo, president of Linksys and chief technology officer of Cisco. "Traditional phone services add features and capabilities slowly, but now, with VoIP on Linksys, they can bring out new features and capabilities at Internet speed."
Linksys also made several other announcements Wednesday, including a new partnership with retailer Best Buy to launch demonstration centers in more than 550 Best Buy stores over the next few months. The centers will give customers hands-on experience with the home networking technology.
Linksys also introduced a suite of software tools designed to simplify wireless networking for consumers. The software toolkit will be bundled with select Wireless-G Router and SpeedBooster products, and will work with notebooks that use Intel's Centrino mobile technology.
Finally, Linksys announced a new video camera and wireless product line. The Wireless-G Video Camera now offers integrated audio support, along with video feeds for home or business security surveillance, video conferencing and other Web-enabled communications tools.
Net firms: Don't tax Internet calling
Published: September 30, 2004, 7:48 AM PDT
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
The largest U.S. Internet phone companies are asking the Internal Revenue Service not to slam them with a "temporary" tax created more than 100 years ago to pay for the Spanish-American War.
In a six-page letter to the IRS sent late Wednesday, the companies stressed that fledgling voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services should not be subject to the excise tax that President William McKinley signed into law in 1898.
"VoIP is having a profound and beneficial impact on the United States and the world in a way unimaginable in 1898," the letter said, urging the IRS to "refrain from any attempt to extend the excise tax to VoIP services."
The letter was sent by the VON Coalition, which represents AT&T, Covad, Intel, Level3, MCI, Microsoft, Pulver.com, Skype and Texas Instruments.
A notice that the IRS published in July says it is considering whether the 3 percent tax on phone calls should be reinterpreted "to reflect changes in technology" used in "telephonic or telephonic quality communications."
Greg Jenner, acting assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, tried to quell alarm over the notice a few days after it appeared. "We are not considering taxing VoIP," Jenner said in a telephone interview at the time. "It simply is a request for comment. We can't conclude whether we're going to issue new regulations until we know what the industry has to say."
The VON Coalition argues that the text of the 1898 law does not apply to Internet-based phone calls because it covers "toll telephone services" with distance-based charges and that any changes to VoIP tax policy should originate with Congress, not the IRS.
The tax agency's notice has drawn fire from senior Republicans who had tried unsuccessfully to repeal the Spanish-American War tax in the past. (The House of Representatives voted 420-2 in May 2000 to eliminate it, but the Senate never acted.)
Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., has sent a letter to President Bush asking him to "direct the IRS immediately to affirm that this 100-year-old tax does not apply to the Internet, but only to traditional analog voice services."
