IT’S NO SURPRISE that a raft of companies -- start-ups, telephone companies, cable companies and Internet access providers -- are scrambling to introduce an Internet-based version of phone service. It promises to be a cheap alternative to traditional circuit-based phone service, and it already has won converts -- from long-distance callers who are saving hundreds of dollars at home to huge corporations such as Boeing Co.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts that up to one-third of telephone service will migrate to the Internet in the next five years. This is not, in other words, a frail new technology in need of government protection. But that isn’t stopping some members of Congress from pushing to forbid states to tax Internet phone service. That would put government in the position of illogically favoring one technology over another. It also would threaten billions of dollars that states collect annually in taxes on telephone services.

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BOCA RATON, Fla. (Business Wire) Airspan Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:AIRN), a leading worldwide provider of broadband fixed wireless DSL networks, announced today that it has extended the supply agreement signed with Dedicado of Uruguay in July 2003. Under that contract, Dedicado became one of the first carriers deploying Airspan’s AS4020 integrated voice and high-speed data communications systems to provide always-on, high-speed Internet access and traditional voice services in the city of Montevideo. Dedicado originally selected Airspan’s wireless DSL technology to overlay an existing network built by competitor, Alvarion.

The original network has operated successfully since December 2003, and demand for its services now outstrips its capacity. Under the contract extension, Airspan will supply additional AS4020, WipLL and WiMAX equipment for a significant network expansion, to enable Dedicado to serve up to 20,000 subscribers with a mix of circuit-switched voice services, always-on, high-speed Internet access and voice-over-IP connections. The contract extension requires the immediate delivery of AS4020 customer premise terminals and WipLL terminals. This equipment will serve the rapidly expanding Dedicado customer base. Additional deliveries throughout 2004 will bring the total number of Airspan customer premise units to approximately 10,000 by year end. WiMAX infrastructure and customer terminals will be delivered in 2005.

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ATLANTA -- Verso Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSO), an integrated communications solutions company, today announced that Orbitel, S.A., a telecommunication service provider based in Medellin, Colombia and its subsidiaries in USA and Spain, have completed implementation of a new NACT IPAX intelligent switching gateway, a key component in Verso’s NACT Prepaid Solution, and has also increased the capacity on each of its existing IPAXs.

This network upgrade brings Orbitel’s total capacity to 92 million minutes per month for services that include prepaid calling cards, national and international long distance, voice over IP (VoIP) services, and low-cost business interconnections between major global cities.

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By TSC Staff

Talk America (TALK:Nasdaq — news — research) posted a smaller second-quarter profit and boosted its capital spending forecast as it builds out its network.

The Reston, Va., provider of local and long-distance telephone service said that for its second quarter ended June 30, earnings fell to $8.6 million, or 30 cents a share, from the year-ago $10.7 million, or 37 cents a share.

Revenue rose to $114.9 million from $93.7 million a year earlier. Earnings and revenue in the latest quarter came in comfortably ahead of the Wall Street analyst consensus estimate, which called for earnings of 29 cents a share on revenue of $112 million.

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New services and hardware that let you call cheaply over the Internet are all the rage. But do you really want to troubleshoot phones?

Michael Desmond

Don’t look now, but your telephone service is about to get a lot smarter and more affordable. By the end of 2006, Forrester Research predicts, nearly 5 million U.S. households will adopt Voice over Internet Protocol phone service, which operates over both broadband cable and DSL Internet connections.



VoIP phone services from companies such as 8x8 and Vonage helped launch this telephony revolution by offering sharply lower fees. Subsequently, consumer giants such as Cablevision, Comcast, and AT&T entered the fray, hoping to lure a flood of new subscribers. More recently, U.S. telecommunications giant Verizon jumped in with a national VoIP service of its own, called VoiceWing. And AT&T, in announcing in late July that it would no longer market traditional phone services to consumers, said it would keep its feature-laden CallVantage Service and other VoIP offerings.



AT&T and Verizon appear to be competing on service and features rather than on price. While Vonage service costs $30 a month, AT&T’s CallVantage runs $35 per month for unlimited local and domestic long-distance calling, and VoiceWing’s basic price is $40 a month for similar servicerates that are still nicely below most traditional phone bill totals.

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