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. ----- http://jya.com/fccups.txt (22 kb) via: www.anonymizer.com FCC_ups