ATLANTA — BellSouth will begin offering satellite television today as part of a bundle of services including long-distance, Internet and cell phone plans.
The Atlanta-based telecommunications company is partnering with DirecTV.

The plan calls for BellSouth and DirecTV to discount their products when sold as part of a bundle of services. BellSouth will sell the package and schedule installation of DirecTV for their customers, who will be able to pay for all of the services with one monthly bill.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (Reuters) -- Ring Fu’s company plays a small part in a global trend that he says will dominate telecommunications in the not-too-distant future.

«A few years ago they said it was a toy. Now, the biggest companies in the U.S. are adopting the technology,» he said.

That «toy» is a technology called voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP, which transmits phone calls the same way e-mails are sent over Internet broadband connections and at much lower costs than conventional calls.

«It will be the main conduit through which humans communicate over long distances, absolutely,» Fu said.

VOIP has been around for several years, but has taken off recently as technology improves and the spread of broadband Internet connections make it easy to use the service.

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Now that they can fake being American pretty well, tech-support workers in India are called upon to be assertive. Or at least try.

By David Streitfeld
Times Staff Writer

BOMBAY, India — In a sleek new office building, two dozen young Indians are studying the customs of a place none of them has ever seen. One by one, the students present their conclusions about this fabled land.

«Americans eat a lot of junk food. Table manners are very casual,» says Ritu Khanna.

«People are quite self-centered. The average American has 13 credit cards,» says Nerissa Dcosta.

«Seventy-six percent of the people mistrust the government. In the near future, this figure is expected to go up to 100%,» says Sunny Trama.

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Leading VoIP Facilitator Selects Telica’s Second Generation Softswitch for Nationwide VoIP Network

MARLBORO, Mass. (Business Wire) Aug. 2, 2004 -- Telica, Inc., an innovator in next-generation VoIP switching, announced today that CommPartners, a leading VoIP facilitator providing IP telephony services and connectivity to service providers, has selected the company’s second generation PLUS™ Softswitch as the cornerstone of its nationwide VoIP network.

Nevada-based CommPartners offers local service providers (broadband, wireless, and wireline), carriers, and high volume call centers a turnkey solution for delivering VoIP phone service to their broadband customers including Subscriber Endpoint Control, PSTN Interconnect, Subscriber Management, and Domestic/International Long Distance.

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By DENIS PAISTE
Union Leader Staff

MANCHESTER — Verizon New Hampshire entered a new era last month when the position of president of the company in New Hampshire was eliminated.

With the departure of J. Michael Hickey, a Boston-based executive was put in charge of the dominant telephone company in the Granite State. Paula „Polly“ Brown, Verizon’s president for northern New England, will handle Hickey’s duties on a regional basis, and the top Verizon corporate officers still based in New Hampshire are now vice presidents Erle Pierce and Lisa Thorne.

„In terms of serving New Hampshire and our commitment to New Hampshire, I don’t think, externally, anybody will see a change,“ Brown said in a recent telephone interview.

Pierce will direct government relations and public affairs in the state, while Thorne, based at 900 Elm St., will focus on regulatory matters. Company officials say they are just as committed to serving their customers and community as before, and the Elm Street offices will remain. Brown will maintain an office here, the company said.

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