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Phone Service Via Net Offered

Posted on: Sunday, 11 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By Scott Leith, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Dec. 10--BellSouth has launched a new Internet-based phone service -- the company's first targeted at average consumers.

BellSouth already sells such a service using a technology called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, to business customers. But the company is gradually branching into the consumer side in the wake of VoIP's continued spike in popularity.

BellSouth Digital Phone Service, as it is known, enters a market with established competitors. Vonage is the nation's largest provider of VoIP calls. Cable companies, notably Time Warner Cable, are quickly adding customers in their territories.

Comcast, the major cable provider in metro Atlanta, has been slower in rolling out VoIP, though it is starting to sell Comcast Digital Voice aggressively.

BellSouth Digital Phone Service costs $29.99 per month per line for unlimited calls in the United States and Canada, the company said Friday.

There are limitations, however. The service will be put in place gradually over the coming months, so consumers will have to check whether it is available for their homes. Those who want BellSouth VoIP will have to use the company's digital subscriber line service for broadband Internet. And the service is only for areas with enhanced 911, or E911, systems, which have technology that allows pinpointing of callers.

The service is cheaper than BellSouth's traditional local- and long-distance plans that offer similar call options. But BellSouth needs a presence in VoIP to give the company an option it can pitch to the growing number of consumers who want the high-tech service.

"This new service is another example of our commitment to providing customers with the greatest choice," said Martin Chandler, vice president of product management for BellSouth, in a prepared statement.

In the third quarter of 2005, the number of VoIP users in the United States surged to 3.6 million, far ahead of 714,000 a year before, according to research from TeleGeography.

For now, BellSouth's voice service is being handled by a small outside vendor called 8x8, of Santa Clara, Calif. Chairman and CEO Bryan Martin of 8x8 said BellSouth is the first company in the United States to resell his company's VoIP service. The venture has a similar agreement with a company in the United Kingdom.

Spokesman Zealous Wiley said BellSouth is continuing to test its own VoIP technology.

Martin, however, said he hopes 8x8 will keep BellSouth as a customer by providing strong service.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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BLS, CMCSK,

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

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