AT&T Tries to Sell New Jersey on Internet Telephone
Posted on: Sunday, 14 March 2004, 06:00 CST
Mar. 14--AT&T has quietly begun offering New Jersey and Texas residents its new Internet telephone service, joining a growing pack of companies selling high-tech phone calling.
Dubbed CallVantage, AT&T's service provides unlimited local and long-distance calls for $40 a month to anyone with a broadband Internet connection such as cable or DSL. The company has an introductory offer of $20 for the first six months.
The Bedminster-based telephone giant is hoping customers will be eager to try the technology know as VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol.
CallVantage and other VoIP services work by converting voice calls into tiny bits of data and sending them over the same broadband connection that delivers high-speed Internet access into a subscriber's home.
Analysts predict that VoIP will eventually replace the current phone system, which works by opening a direct circuit between two callers.
"Everybody's going to VoIP because it substantially reduces the cost of delivering telephone service," said Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research, a telecommunications market research firm based in Boonton. "It's also a telephone service that is expected to become extremely feature-rich as all kinds of multimedia add-ons are layered on top of the voice services." AT&T's CallVantage, for example, has a feature called "Locate Me" that will ring a home phone. If you're not there, it will try up to five different phones to find you.
AT&T spokesman Gary Morgenstern said Friday that the company is conducting a "market readiness trial" of its CallVantage service in New Jersey and Texas. The company revealed its plan to offer VoIP in December.
"We haven't formally launched the service," Morgenstern said, although he added that consumers can sign up via the company's Web site.
The service is available to anyone who subscribes to broadband Internet service. For now, CallVantage subscribers are limited to certain phone numbers. If they sign up now, they can choose numbers in the 201, 973, 732, and 908 area codes in New Jersey, as well as seven area codes in Texas.
The company plans to add more area codes and will turn on the service nationwide "soon," said Morgenstern.
The service comes with a phone adapter, which is plugged between a computer and cable or DSL modem. Service subscribers then plug a standard household telephone into the adapter.
Like other VoIP service, CallVantage will not work in a power outage.
The company advises that 911 emergency calling works slightly differently with VoIP service. Among other things, anyone who dials 911 will reach the 911 emergency operator, but will have to tell the operator the caller's location and phone number. Neither one it will not appear automatically on the 911 operator's screen.
In some cases, CallVantage users may be able to switch their traditional land-line phone number to their CallVantage service. DSL subscribers cannot switch, the company advises. Those users would choose a new number provided by CallVantage.
VoIP is attracting a lot of attention as phone companies and cable companies enter the market.
In November, Cablevision began offering VoIP service called Optimum Voice, for example. Verizon has said it plans a VoIP offering this year.
And there are a growing number of smaller upstarts including Edison-based Vonage and North Brunswick-based VoicePulse, among others.
"We welcome them to the market; competition is healthy," said Vonage spokesman Mitchell Slepian. "We look forward to seeing their marketing plans and how they choose to educate potential customers." Vonage has signed up 120,000 subscribers and recently announced a deal with Circuit City stores, where customers can buy Vonage equipment and service.
AT&T has said it plans to have 1 million CallVantage subscribers by next year.
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(c) 2004, The Record, Hackensack, N.J. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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