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[jya@pipeline.com (John Young)]

   8-10-96. WaPo: 
 
   "Phone Service Via the Internet May Slash Rates." 
 
      Labs of Advanced Technology has developed a way for 
      people to make long-distance calls over the Internet 
      using only their telephones, at about half the price of 
      ordinary toll calls. Customers would merely call a 
      central number, then dial their long-distance numbers. 
      The call is carried on the Internet, then put back onto 
      the local phone system at its destination. The company 
      plans to charge 5 to 8 cents per minute for all domestic 
      U.S. calls, which represents a 50 to 75 percent discount 
      off most domestic long-distance rates. International 
      rates would depend on arrangements made with foreign 
      phone companies. "Twenty years from now, and probably 
      sooner, I don't see the giants of the telecommunications 
      industry existing anymore," said the company's 
      president. The giants hoot, "FCC, PACs, whack him." 
 
   "PCs and the Postal Service Challenge the Mailroom Reign of 
   Pitney Bowes" 
 
      New technology has made it possible for IBM, Bell 
      Atlantic and National Semiconductor to start prowling 
      around postage meters, which account for $20 billion a 
      year in postage. With a telephone line to the post 
      office and some fancy computer software, a "stamp" could 
      spin out of the printer at the same time the envelope is 
      being addressed. Computer-generated envelopes will not 
      only have addresses and stamps, but also a bar code that 
      can quickly be read by a computer to hasten delivery. 
      Distinctive stamps called indicia carry a specially 
      encrypted numerical code that Pitney Bowes believes the 
      Postal Service should adopt to prevent counterfeiting. 
 
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