Re: Intel, Microsoft doing Internet Phone Software

[jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>]

If these people REALLY wanted to promote the use of Internet telephoning, 
what they'd do is implement a system where an Internet ISP could be "called" 
over the Internet by a person wanting to place an LD telephone call to that 
area, and (presumably using A/D and D/A techniques) rather than generating 
and receiving modem tones, woudl generate and transmit the audio over the 
telephone line.  That way, the target of the call would simply need to pick 
up the telephone and talk, as he would ordinarily do:  He wouldn't even need 
a computer.  He might not even know the call was going over the Internet.  

The main problem with using Internet telephone is the coordination required 
between the receiver and the sender.  It would be like requiring a fax 
recipient to be at the machine when the call came in.  Perhaps larger 
companies will install hardware to attach their telephone systems to the 
Internet, so that an incoming call will automatically ring lines as usual.  
However, being able to bypass this process for everyone, not just large 
companies, would be a vast improvment.  It would allow motivated people to use the 
Internet for almost all of their phone calls, not just the small percentage 
to the few people who happened to have Internet telephone.



At 09:48 PM 7/22/96 EDT, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote:
>	I would be curious if the standards mentioned include any cryptographic
>capabilities. The PGPhone people might want to look into producing a patch for
>the Intel (and later Microsoft) programs allowing encryption. (In consideration
>of fair use, I am both editing it down and putting on the same ad I see (I use
>lynx).)
>	-Allen
>
>>   [The New York Times]
>
>>   _ Monday July 22 6:03 PM EDT _
>   
>>Intel Unveils Internet Phone Application
>
>>   SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (Reuter) - In its quest to make the personal
>>   computer an indispensable tool, Intel Corp. Monday unveiled software
>>   that will make it easy to place long-distance phone calls over the
>>   Internet.
>   
>>   The Intel Internet Phone software is the first to allow users of
>>   different types of computers and software to link up, solving a
>>   problem that has held back use of the global computer network for
>>   long-distance telephone calls, even though it would save long-distance
>>   toll charges.
>
Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com