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AT&T Offers Internet Telephone Service in Buffalo, N.Y.

Posted on: Thursday, 1 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

Jul. 1--More people may make phone calls over the Internet, now that major telephone companies are launching "voice over Internet" service in Buffalo.

AT&T is offering "Call Vantage" service here and in 26 other markets, the company announced Wednesday. Subscribers use an adapter to plug their regular phone into a cable modem or DSL connection.

Meanwhile Verizon, the dominant local phone company, says it is weeks away from announcing its own voice-over-Internet service, although it's not clear whether Buffalo will be among the initial markets.

Using the Internet to transmit voice calls may cut your phone bill, but it requires that you already have a high-speed Internet connection via cable modem or DSL. Only about one in five households have high-speed access, which can cost more than $30 a month.

"It's not a substitute for traditional phone service," said Cathy Martine, AT&T senior vice president for Internet Telephony.

AT&T's service offers unlimited local and long-distance calls within the U.S. for $35 a month, with a discounted rate of $20 in the first six months. Cancellation within the first year can trigger a $60 penalty.

Similar calling plans using the conventional phone network typically cost $50 a month or more, Martine said.

Internet phone services benefit from lower taxes than standard telephone, although regulators are reviewing their tax status.

Features of AT&T's service include automatic logging of calls, call forwarding to other phones and voice mail that can be checked on an Internet-connected computer.

Installation of the adapter takes about 10 minutes, according to AT&T, and phone use doesn't require that the computer be turned on.

Other providers like Packet8 and Vonage are also selling voice-over-Internet. Vonage has 75 subscribers in Buffalo and 225 throughout the 716 area code since launching service here in 2002, a representative said.

Subscribers in New York pay a $1.50 monthly fee called a regulatory recovery fee, but not the surcharges that add to traditional telephone bills, said Michael Tribolet, Vonage executive vice president for operations.

Writing on an Internet message board, one user of AT&T's Internet phone service said call quality was good without bogging down Internet use. "The download speeds are still respectable and the voice still sounds good," the subscriber wrote. The downside of the service was AT&T's one-year contract, he added.

While providers try to make their Internet phone service look and work like traditional phones, the technology behind it is different. Calls travel part of their journey as data packets on the Internet, which can face bottlenecks that affect call quality, experts say. But AT&T and Vonage said their call quality is equal to the traditional network.

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