IP: NEW TWIST ON INTERNET PHONE CALLS

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

NEW TWIST ON INTERNET PHONE CALLS
N.J.-based International Discount Telecommunications Corp. will start an
Internet telephony service next year that allows computer users to ring up
anyone with a telephone.  Other Internet telephony services require both
parties to be online in order to talk.  This new service enables an Internet
user to patch into the local telephone network of the person being called,
for about one tenth the cost of an international phone call or less.  "We
expect this is going to totally collapse the price of international phone
calls," says IDT's president.  Meanwhile, IDT's going to have plenty of
competition -- the publisher of NetWatch newsletter is starting a Free World
Dialup experimental service, similar to IDT's, and a number of other
companies are starting PC-to-PC services.  (Wall Street Journal 10 Nov 95 B7A)