Net phone services are the future. Here’s a primer on the technology, the potential savings, and
trade-offs Just a few years ago, only tech geeks and a few hobbyists made phone calls over the Internet. Now, Net telephony is starting to find widespread acceptance among consumers and corporate customers alike. The technology is taking off despite its clumsy name: VoIP, short for voice over Internet protocol. The U. S. alone already has 500,000 residential users, and that market could grow to 16.5 million by 2008, according to analyst Jon Arnold of consultant Frost & Sullivan.
It’s easy to see the appeal. Internet phone service is cheaper than the traditional kind, and it’s packed with new features, like the ability to listen to your voice mail on the Web, regardless of where you are. So should everyone turn their broadband connection into a phone line? Not necessarily. BusinessWeek Online Technology Editor Alex Salkever offers a quick primer on what you need to know about VoIP and making phone calls over the Internet.
[ read more ]
There’s a place for intelligent speculation in the market but no place for guessing. One of the toughest things to do in investing is to call a
money-earning guess a mistake. But Fool contributor David Meier does just that and spills the beans on what he should’ve been paying attention to in the first place.
By David Meier
I am a bona fide telecom junkie. Nothing fascinates me more than trying to find the best telecom investment, especially since prices have been beaten down since 2000. Despite its gyrations, it’s a vital industry to our country and to the world, and my hunch tells me some company has to come out a winner eventually. And I have always wanted to figure out which one that was going to be.
Level 3 (Nasdaq: LVLT) was going to revolutionize the wholesale data transmission industry by building the best fiber optic network. With so much pent-up demand that could materialize because of projected price elasticity, Level 3 was supposed to be one of the most influential and successful businesses in telecom. But I just couldn’t pull the trigger. While the story was compelling, I kept reminding myself that it was just a story.
[ read more ]
SBC Communications is rolling out an internet phone service to 50,000 Ford Motor employees in 110 locations, marking one of the largest such deployments yet as traditional phone companies enter the
internet-calling fray.
The $US100 million ($143 million) contract shows that large businesses are increasingly interested in upgrading their telephone systems to internet calling technology, even though the market for businesses is still nascent.
Separately, Verizon is expected to begin rolling out a consumer software product named Iobi that will allow consumers to route phone calls, store caller ID phone numbers on contact lists and forward voice mails via email by way of their PC.
[ read more ]
By Maria Karadimos
News Writer
For Jackie Joy, a Western Michigan University senior majoring in psychology and employee at the Office of Graduate Education, the inability to have access to long-distance phone services can be an annoyance, but has not been a major issue.
«It’s much more time consuming while faxing information because a long-distance card number is required,» Joy said. «It can be kind of a pain when you have to make multiple long-distance phone calls and have to re-enter the phone card number and pin each time.»
The elimination of long-distance services began in the residence halls, said Viji Murali, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at WMU.
[ read more ]
