New devices and programs route calls - clearly and cheaply - via the Internet

By Doug Bedell / Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
Published 09-08-1998

Two years ago, using the Internet for voice hookups was a lot like trying to talk underwater:

"Howwwb ... arb ... byou?"

"Bine ... denks. Ibt it braining dare? Ibt braining here, albright."

As the Bells dozed, the geeks have been very busy, indeed.

Today, Internet telephony has become downright attractive, technologically and financially. Those irritating, 20-second delays have been all but eliminated by new compression techniques. Voice clarity has arrived. And even big business has begun developing robust telephony servers to wire entire offices for long-distance service.

For the parent with a child at a far-away college, some of the new devices can chop thousands of dollars from swollen telephone bills. Several products actually connect through normal telephones - no computer required.

More than a dozen consumer-friendly Internet telephone computer programs are on the market, with 12 million users. Most packages require callers and recipients to purchase and install the same software, so you may need to double the unit price when figuring the actual cost.

In general, the computer programs require a sound card, an attached microphone and an Internet service provider, or ISP, account. But several of the packages are now providing Internet-to-regular phone and Internet-to-fax connections.

That's the kind of innovation needed to propel this technology completely around the big phone companies, which are now busy trying to attach charges to the new medium, industry analysts say. AT&T alone will lose an estimated $350 million in revenue by 2001 because of Internet telephony, they say.

Internationally, Internet phones may hold even larger ramifications. Europe's largest telephone company, Deutsche Telecom, predicts it will lose $173 million in long-distance revenue to the technology in 2001.

Consumers might figure it this way: The audio quality you get today with Internet telephony is similar to what AT&T offered in the 1940s. Some analysts insist that data networks will handle 30 percent of all voice traffic worldwide within five years.

The three distinctly different packages show the range of options offered for $200 or less.

The free version of FreeTel functions quite well. A full-featured version of the software, which runs on Windows PCs, costs $39.95 each and adds some essential features, such as direct Internet-to-telephone dialing.

Users connect to their Internet service providers, call up the software and are presented with a green, LED-like display board. On it is an ever-changing list of people waiting for calls.

"Akmar in Morocco," "BLONDE BLANCHE," "Mi Novia"... people create all sorts of eye-catching handles to make themselves noticed among the world-in-waiting. The queue is filled with every language and last name conceivable.

The idea is to coordinate a meeting time with your party, then locate the person's handle in the queue and click on it. The target then answers the query by "picking up" the virtual phone with another click of the mouse.

Users of the free version must endure occasional advertisements scrolling across the top of their computers. With the full-featured version, they can block out the ads.

Another choice, InfoTalk, is an Israeli product, a stand-alone box that plugs directly into any modular phone jack. A competitor, Aplio

hone, has developed a similar product around the same innovation.

No computer is required with InfoTalk. Each user needs an ISP. For the unconnected, InnoMedia provides a low-priced ISP account that gets the job done. The rest of the Internet interaction is invisible.

Callers dial up their friends via a regular phone, agree to switch their InfoTalk boxes on, then hang up. After a short delay, the phones at both ends ring. InfoTalk automatically links their phones through the Internet.

The advantages are obvious. It's fairly portable and unobtrusive. Programming the little box is somewhat tricky, though, about as difficult as a VCR to configure. Even an InfoTalk spokeswoman conceded that her elderly mother had trouble negotiating the instructions.

Voice clarity is exceptional. Innovative compression developments minimize most problems exhibited by early Internet phone devices. Delays and bottlenecks will produce some silly pauses and talk-over problems, but nothing that can't be negotiated in light of the savings.

A third option is Internet Phone, a Vocaltec product available for Mac and Windows PCs. This slick little program seems destined for a big chunk of this new market.

The interface is crisp and functional. A virtual handset makes dialing out easy with a mouse. Visitors arrange meetings and wait in "rooms," predesignated virtual locations displayed on an LED-like screen.

Release 5, which enables PC-to-PC calls, can be downloaded in a trial version for free. But it takes the $49.95 upgrade to really feel the power of this program. With it, you can dial any telephone number in the world from your PC. No computer is needed at the other end.

Of course, that means callers with the upgrade also have to subscribe to Vocaltec's worldwide telephony service for $50 a month. But, still, those numbers aren't going to frighten off consumers bent on achieving huge long-distance savings.
CHART(S): (DMN: Beto ALvarez) Internet Telephone Choices.

© 1998 The Dallas Morning News All Rights Reserved

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