In de US is dit al een nieuwe hit, bellen via het internet. Vandaag was er nog RTL+ een reportage hoeveel men kon besparen door te bellen via internet (13 eurocent naar 7eurocent/minuut.
Wannner zal het in NL aanslaan en wanneer zal het aangeboden worden door versa.
Hieronder de introductie van deze service door Covad.
Gr,
Mark
Internet Voice Offering to Include Business and Consumer Products
San Jose, Calif. (February 9, 2004) – Covad Communications Group, Inc. (OTCBB: COVD), a leading national broadband service provider of high-speed Internet and network access, today announced plans to offer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to business customers and consumers. Complementing its diverse broadband portfolio for small- and medium-size businesses and consumers, Covad plans to begin rolling out VoIP services to the majority of the country's top Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) by the fourth quarter of 2004.
VoIP enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for local and long distance telephone calls instead of the public switched telephone network. According to a report from Stratecast Partners, by 2007 the U.S. VoIP market is forecast to grow to more than five million subscribers, a five-fold increase over 2002 levels. VoIP technology will enable businesses and consumers to significantly cut costs of telephone services while retaining the ease-of-use of the common telephone.
"Today there is no VoIP service provider in the market who has all of Covad's capabilities and infrastructure assets. From our national last-mile broadband network to our automated provisioning, support, and billing, we believe we can leverage many of our core competencies to become a leading turnkey VoIP solution provider in the United States," said Charles Hoffman, president and chief executive officer of Covad. "Broadband access is at the very core of VoIP services delivery and Covad is in a unique position to participate in the market thanks to our nationwide broadband network that covers 45 million homes and businesses and is engineered to support a data-based service like VoIP. It is a natural extension of Covad's existing infrastructure.
"While many VoIP competitors are forced to deliver a best-effort service over a third-party broadband network, we have the ability to guarantee the quality of our voice service from end to end because Covad owns the network," Hoffman added. "Unlike other VoIP providers who might leave it up to the end user to install and support this new technology, we are able to offer turnkey solutions. Our partners will also be able to utilize our VoIP services and package them in conjunction with broadband."
In addition to providing VoIP services directly to its customers and turnkey solutions for wholesale partners, Covad has made and will make investments in its broadband network to support the market entry of its wholesale partners offering their own VoIP products. This includes quality of service (QoS) standards and service level agreements (SLA) to ensure that partners' VoIP offerings are of the highest quality.
Covad intends to initially launch three VoIP products targeted at business customers:
Basic Voice
Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) Voice
Virtual PBX for Enterprise users needing a virtual Private Branch Exchange
A consumer VoIP offering will quickly follow after the launch of Covad's business VoIP services
All three voice products will include unlimited local calling with the option of either bundled domestic long distance minutes, or unlimited domestic long distance calling. These products will support international and inbound toll-free calling. Local number portability, emergency 911 and directory assistance will be standard features. The products will be bundled with Covad's broadband Internet access, web hosting, and corporate e-mail hosting services.
Covad plans to offer VoIP through its direct sales channel as well as agents, resellers and its wholesale partners. The company will be in market trials by mid-year with rollout of VoIP services by the fourth quarter of 2004.