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February 11, 2000 Stabroek News
VoIP has many advantages over traditional phone services, the outcome is inevitable Dear Sir, I see GT&T is at it again, blocking certain sites. For the benefit of those customers who may not know about VoIP here are some points to ponder. VoIP is the real-time transmission of voice signals using an Internet protocol over the public Internet or a private data network. It provides less expensive long distance and international communications because data networks do not charge for the distance a call travels. One of the best software programmes that facilitate VoIP is Net2Phone from Net2Phone Inc. They were the first company to offer a commercial PC-to-Phone service. The latest version of their software has the following free features: voice mail, PC-to-PC calling, ICQ buddy PC-to-PC calling and PC-to-Fax solutions, in addition to the company's flagship, PC-to-phone service. The software is free and can be downloaded from Net2Phone.com. The cost of PC-to-phone calls for instance from Guyana to the United States is 15 US cents per minute during peak hours and 10 US cents during off-peak hours. 15US cents exchanged at 180 to 1 works out to 27G$. GT&T's peak rate excluding government tax as quoted in their 1999 directory is 239G$. Net2Phone Inc. on Monday last, launched their Net2Phone direct service in the United Kingdom at rates that are on average half the cost of current calls. The Net2Phone direct service routes calls over their own private IP network, which currently reaches 30 countries, with another 25 countries to be added by the end of 2000. They plan to expand the Net2Phone direct service to Canada, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Australia and Japan in the near future. What's more, major telecommunication companies who have recognised that VoIP is the wave of the future have formed alliances with Net2Phone Inc. The following two news excerpts are examples. August 3l, 1999 - "Aiming to widen the international telephony market, AT&T Corp. and Net2Phone Inc. partnered to bring Net2Phone's Internet telephony services to AT&T's global network. Under the terms of the five-year agreement, AT&T will provide Net2Phone access to its Global Network Services, enabling Net2Phone to deliver its PC-to-telephone services to 17 countries, with future expansion planned." August 25, 1999 - "Net2Phone Inc., a leading provider of voice-enhanced Internet services, announced that Sprint will test its voice-over-IP technology for consumer long distance calls to Asia. Dubbed Sprint `Callternatives', the service will enable calls to Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China and India and will help Net2Phone expand its IP services to other countries." The two major requirements to access VoIP facilities currently are a Computer and a Credit Card. While credit cards can currently be obtained from banks locally, the facility is only offered to business owners, the deposits on accounts are huge and the service charges for the facility are high. Don't despair, however, I recently noticed the government mulling the idea of Guyana going plastic. It is hoped this market will become competitive and as such drive the current requirements and charges down. And while the average Guyanese does not own a computer, they will some time in the future be able to purchase a telephone instrument, which has built in VoIP capabilities. One phone manufacturer has already signaled their intention to do so, as the following news excerpt shows. January 5, 2000 - "To tap into the growth of Internet telephony, Net2Phone Inc. formed a partnership with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., parent of electronics maker Panasonic, to provide Interact-based phone service with consumer telephones. Panasonic will integrate Net2Phone's One Touch voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service into its line of phones. The goal is to create a telephone that can transmit both public switched and IP phone calls." Additionally, the future of VoIP does look bright since the International Data Corporation (IDC) `IP Telephony Services: Market Review and Forecast, 1998-2004 stated', "The worldwide Internet Protocol (IP) telephony market will explode from 310 million minutes of use in 1998 to 2.7 billion by the end of 1999" and "the number of IP telephony minutes will reach 135 billion by 2004." Having said all of this it should be clear that VoIP has the advantage over traditional telecommunications for a very simple reason, it offers much more features at a lower cost. Judge for yourselves fellow Guyanese. Which would you choose if given the choice? GT&T already know the outcome. That's why they usurped our right to choose who we make overseas calls through.
Yours faithfully,
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