In a head to head, cut-throat, competitive Internet telephony market, sole Voice over IP (VoIP) (define - news - alert - tutorial) providers, telecoms, and cable carriers all want to stand out with different feature offerings and pricing schemes.  Today, AT&T (news - alert - quote) is announcing a new feature set for its CallVantage VoIP-based calling service, including immediate availability of a sub-account capability that provides up to nine distinctive telephone numbers along with the ability to manage each as a separate calling experience while sharing the same account line. The telecom is also debuting additional features and services like a second-line offer, support of facsimile machines and some modems, call filtering capabilities, a record and send features.

"With the introduction of these innovative new capabilities, AT&T CallVantage Service is now poised to provide subscribers a truly differentiated calling experience," said Cathy Martine, AT&T senior vice president for Internet Telephony.  "With AT&T CallVantage Plus, everyone can receive calls when and where they want providing each user a completely customizable experience on the calls they receive. No other provider currently offers this level of control."

The new AT&T CallVantage Plus features provide users a distinctive telephone number and the ability to manage their individual experience on the calls they receive. This enables as many as nine individuals the ability to configure the features like Do Not Disturb and Locate Me to receive calls when they want and where they want. It also provides a discrete Call Log for each user and personal voicemail. The monthly cost for the new feature set is $7.49 per additional user. '2nd Line,' service is now available and must compliment the primary line's local and long-distance bundle for $29.99 a month, or the local only plan at $19.99 monthly.

One of the new features called Call Filtering, that when combined with other AT&T CallVantage Service features, it provides the ability to direct calls based on who is calling. For example, using Do Not Disturb users might elect to send calls from friends directly to voicemail, while allowing calls from children always to ring through. The monthly charge for this feature is $1.99. The Record & Send feature makes repetitive calls easy and convenient so that classroom moms, soccer coaches and the like can record a message and quickly deliver it to as many as 20 separate phone numbers. Record & Send is free during this introductory period depending on the calling plan and whether it's used for long distance or international calls. This feature will cost $0.49 per use beginning in February 2005.

"While some of these new capabilities are priced a-la-carte, we are also introducing a number of new features to enhance the already feature-rich calling experience at no additional cost," said Martine. "This will help ensure our customers that they're receiving the very best broadband calling experience at incomparable value."

The service enhancements being added to the existing AT&T CallVantage Service platform at no additional charge include: Fax and Modem Support�making it possible for most commonly used facsimile machines and some modems to interoperate with AT&T CallVantage Service. It may also work with some Personal Video Recorders and satellite TV systems; Safe Forward Number�an automatically activates a prescribed location to deliver calls whenever there is an interruption in service due to conditions such as a commercial power outage that may affect the ability to receive calls. The Locate Me feature does not need to be active for this automatic redirection to take place. (This feature is currently available only to customers with a D-Link 1120 TA connected directly to the modem.)

In addition to these new features, the company also introduced today additional service enhancements that include:

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• International Calling Support�that now makes it possible to mix international locations with existing features including Call Forwarding, Click to Dial, Locate Me, Phone Book and Speed Dial.

• Locate Me VIP List�which provides the option of forwarding all calls, or only a select group of numbers.

• Phone Book Import/Export�which provides synchronization of up to 250 names to Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and Palm Powered handhelds.

• Set your Time Zone�that now makes it possible to select and customize the time zone associated with features such as Call Logs and Conference Calling

Additionally, the company announced the end of its introductory calling promotion that offered Personal Conference at no additional charge, and renamed the feature Conference Calling. Effective immediately, from now on, all Conference Calling calls will be billed at $0.35 per minute.

AT&T

www.att.com

Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet.com and Internet Telephony magazine. Previously, she was assistant editor for EContent magazine in Connecticut. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]