BY RICH TEHRANI
Group Publisher

VoIP, PC Not Included (Or Needed)

Of the many ways to utilize Internet telephony, perhaps my favorite is through Internet telephony appliances made by companies such as Aplio, Innomedia, Fone Friend, and Shelcad. In order for these appliances to work, they must be connected to the telephones of each party participating in a conversation. Each device makes a local phone call to an ISP and then simultaneously, both devices connect with the other device over the IP network. Aside from the hardware cost of each device and the ISP charge, the call is free or at most, the cost of calling the local ISP. These devices are especially useful in situations where large long distance costs can be attributed to calling the same number on a frequent basis. If you spend $50 per month calling the same number, you will surely benefit from this type of device.

We often hear of various "last mile" solutions that allow end users to access Internet telephony such as cable modems, DSL and wireless -- these are all technologies that show a great deal of promise but they are still only available to a fraction of the world's population. Internet telephony devices allow us to take advantage of inexpensive long-distance without having to migrate to any of the various  last mile solutions.

So I wasn't too surprised to hear that the monthly Internet telephony traffic utilizing Aplio's devices has reached 5 million minutes per month as of May 1999, with a monthly growth rate of 20 percent and a total growth rate of 1,900 percent since the product was launched back in March 1998. To put that in perspective, at a dime a minute, that is a savings of over $500,000 in long-distance charges. In case you are interested in seeing how much you can save, check out Aplio's savings calculator.

From results of several studies completed over the past year of its U.S. user base, Aplio reports that more than half of the users surveyed spend at least 30 minutes on average per call, and 57 percent talk either once per week or several times per week on average. An overwhelming 68 percent use the Aplio/Phone primarily for personal or home use, mostly to call family members. Approximately 85 percent of users make international calls using the Aplio/Phone, the most frequently called region being Asia/Pacific.

These devices are certainly in their infancy -- some of the hurdles they still face is interoperability with other devices which we can expect to see through the integration of H.323 and the iNOW! initiative. These devices are ready to be deployed on the edges of Internet telephony networks worldwide, allowing you to initiate inexpensive voice over IP calls to people without an Internet telephony device.

While billions of dollars are being invested in building IP-based service provider networks and last mile solutions, computerless Internet telephony devices keep gaining ground. If you're spending a substantial amount of money each month calling the same long-distance number, be sure to consider Internet telephony devices as an alternative to paying large long-distance bills.

Rich Tehrani welcomes comments at rtehrani@tmcnet.com.