VocalTec Inc and Dialogic Corp have joined forces to extend Internet telephony to non-Internet users. The new Internet Phone Telephony Gateway will provide connections between the Internet and local telephone lines, enabling callers to combine the low cost of Internet connections, the convenience of initiating calls from either personal computers or telephones, and the ability to communicate with anybody with a telephone via the public switched telephone network. Calls to wireline and cellular phones are possible, and the cost of a call is limited to the telephone charges incurred when linking to the Internet on either end of the connection, plus the standard Internet communications charges. VocalTec chairman Elon Ganor said the software provides the sound quality of a good cellular phone connection, though this may vary depending on the sophistication of the Internet access company providing the local connections. VocalTec also said it is now offering a version of its computer-to-computer voice conversation software to run on Apple Computer Inc’s Macintosh computers. The product previously only ran on Microsoft Corp Windows personal computers. The system comprises a personal computer running Windows95, the VocalTec gateway software and a Dialogic computer telephony adapter board, and is linked to the telephone network and the Internet through a 28.8Kbps or faster modem. It is expected to be available as a complete system in the next quarter. Pricing of the system has not been established. Revenues from the hardware component will go to Dialogic, while software revenues go to VocalTec. The product will be available to third party product developers for incorporation into their own products.
