AT&T Unveils Phone Service That Sends Calls Over Internet
Posted on: Tuesday, 18 May 2004, 06:00 CDT
Consumers in Washington will be able to make telephone calls over the Internet with a new service from AT&T unveiled Monday.
Subscribers can get unlimited local and long distance service and deep discounts on international calls for $39.99. A special promotion allows customers who sign up before the end of June to pay $19.99 monthly for the first six months, said Cathy Martine, AT&T senior vice president for Internet Telephony, Consumer Marketing and Sales.
AT&T is the first nationwide company to offer the service to Western Washington. Vonage Holdings Corp., an Edison, N.J., company, has been the biggest Internet-phone provider in the region. On Monday, Vonage cut its rate from $34.99 to $29.99 a month.
The technology - called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP - uses the Internet to send telephone calls. It's beginning to replace traditional telephone services in homes and businesses around the country, including the South Sound.
VoIP uses regular phones connected to a broadband line such as a cable modem or digital subscriber line. The conversation is broken into pieces and put back together at the other end of the call. Once the service is installed, it's as cheap as sending an e-mail.
AT&T started offering the Internet phone service earlier this year and Monday added several Western states.
AT&T's CallVantage Service offers several new features:
* Call Logs tracks incoming and outgoing calling with "click-to- dial" capability.
* Do Not Disturb allows customers to receive calls only when they want, while letting emergency calls ring in.
* Personal Conferencing enables users to set up a meeting with up to nine additional callers.
* Locate Me enables home phones to find customers by ringing up to five different phones all at once or one right after the other.
* Voicemail with eFeatures lets customers hear their messages from any phone or PC and forward the voicemail to anyone on the Web via e-mail.
All that is required for service is a plug-in telephone adapter provided by AT&T, a broadband Internet connection and a regular telephone supplied by the customer. Installation takes about 10 minutes.
On Monday, AT&T added Tacoma, Olympia, Bremerton, Seattle and Bellingham; Phoenix; Boulder-Longmont, Denver and Fort Collins- Loveland, Colo.; Portland-Vancouver and Salem, Ore.; as well as the Sacramento, Santa Cruz-Watsonville, Santa Rosa, Vallejo-Fairfield- Napa and Ventura areas of California.
AT&T hopes to sign up 1 million subscribers by the end of 2005.
- - -
Marcelene Edwards: 253-597-8638
marcelene.edwards@mail.tribnet.com
Related Articles
- Optimum Online Ranked Top High-Speed Internet Service Provider in the East By J.D. Power and Associates in 2008 Internet Service Provider Residential Customer Satisfaction Study(SM)
- Autonet Mobile Selected By Freightliner SportChassis to Provide Wireless Internet Service for Their Custom Vehicles
- Rio Selects ZyXEL Access Equipment for Internet Services
- Rio Networks Selects ZyXEL Access Equipment for Differentiated Value-Added High-Speed Internet Services
- Consumers in 50 Virginia Communities Now Can Get Verizon's Fastest DSL-Based Internet Service
- Cox High Speed Internet Service Enhanced With Faster Downloads and Additional Package Options
- Verizon and Yahoo! Launch Internet Service for FiOS Customers
- Verizon Offers New Low Price for Slower High-Speed Internet Service
- J-COM Field Trials Entropic Technology to Deliver High-Speed Internet Service
- Callers can get Net gains ; Using Internet for telephone calls catches on as consumers learn of savings
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds