[1]Marketplace Technology [2]Front page, [3]News, [4]Sports, [5]Money, [6]Life, [7]Weather, [8]Marketplace Inside Tech • [9]FAQ, Tips and [10]Tricks • [11]Web Column • [12]Hot Sites • [13]Tech News • [14]Tech Reviews • [15]Answer Desk • [16]Shareware Shelf • [17]Web Potholes • [18]Web Resources • [19]Tech Front Resources • [20]Index • [21]Search • [22]Feedback • [23]What's hot • [24]About us • [25]Jobs at USA [26]TODAY 09/08/97- Updated 09:34 AM ET PCs no longer needed to place Net calls Consumers can now make super-cheap, long-distance phone calls over the Internet without even touching a computer - creating a dangerous rival for long-distance companies. Monday, IDT unveils Net2Phone Direct, a service that lets a consumer pick up a phone, dial a number and send the call through the Internet to another phone anywhere in the world. The cost: 8 cents a minute within the USA; 18 cents to London; 29 cents to Japan - all cheaper than traditional long-distance calling. Net2Phone Direct is the broadest service yet. Versions are being tried by others, including units or partners of Deutsche Telekom and Japan's KDD. Says David Goodtree of Forrester Research, "Phone to phone is where the money is." "It's the natural evolution of voice over the Internet," says Yankee Group's Brian Adamik. Several software packages already let a PC user have a voice conversation with another PC user via the Internet. Vocaltec, the leading Internet phone company, offers a service that connects a PC user to regular phones. But phone-to-phone can reach the broadest number of consumers. Net2Phone Direct works like a long-distance, dial-around service. A user dials an 800 number or a local access number, punches in an account number, much like using a phone card, then dials the number to be called. IDT's system sends the call over the Internet to a computer in Hackensack, N.J., which dumps the call back into the regular phone network, through which the call connects to another phone. IDT plans to expand the system by placing its computers in more cities, so the calls travel more over the Net (which is free) and less distance over traditional phone lines (which cost money). Eventually, prices could fall "to under a nickel a minute to anyplace in the country," says CEO Howard Jonas. Until recently, major phone companies had all but ignored developments in Internet telephony. But that's changing. Big phone companies "are keeping a careful eye on it," Adamik says. Last week, Deutsche Telekom announced an investment in Vocaltec. Over the summer, AT&T and Vocaltec allied to fund an Internet telephony start-up run by former AT&T executive Tom Evslin. By Kevin Maney, USA TODAY _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ [27]Front page, [28]News, [29]Sports, [30]Money, [31]Life, [32]Weather, [33]Marketplace ©COPYRIGHT 1997 [34]USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. References 1. http://www.usatoday.com/cgi-bin/redir?SpaceID=342&AdID=875&URL=http://www.usatoday.com/marketpl/tech.htm 2. http://www.usatoday.com/usafront.htm 3. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm 4. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sfront.htm 5. http://www.usatoday.com/money/mfront.htm 6. http://www.usatoday.com/life/lfront.htm 7. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wfront.htm 8. http://www.usatoday.com/marketpl/mkthome.htm 9. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/webfaq.htm 10. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/webfaq.htm 11. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/cc.htm 12. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/ch.htm 13. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ct000.htm 14. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/cr000.htm 15. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/bonus/qa/techform.htm 16. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/cs/cs000.htm 17. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/cp.htm 18. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/cw.htm 19. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/cyber1.htm 20. http://www.usatoday.com/leadpage/indexusa.htm#ldex 21. http://167.8.29.8/plweb-cgi/ixacct.pl 22. http://www.usatoday.com/feedback/comment1.htm 23. http://www.usatoday.com/leadpage/usanew.htm 24. http://www.usatoday.com/leadpage/credit/credit.htm 25. http://www.usatoday.com/leadpage/usajobs0.htm 26. http://www.usatoday.com/leadpage/usajobs0.htm 27. http://www.usatoday.com/usafront.htm 28. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm 29. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sfront.htm 30. http://www.usatoday.com/money/mfront.htm 31. http://www.usatoday.com/life/lfront.htm 32. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wfront.htm 33. http://www.usatoday.com/marketpl/mkthome.htm 34. http://www.usatoday.com/leadpage/credit/credit.htm