Deutsche Telekom AG, which last year bet heavily on internet telephony by taking a 21% stake in VocalTec Ltd plans to start commercializing Voice over IP services and is rumored to be about to up its investment on the technology to 10bn marks ($5.46bn). The German carrier did not confirm reports in Focus magazine that an internal company document recommends investing 10bn marks in IP telephony. But the carrier does plan to move from testing voice over IP products with 1000 customers to offering a much wider-reaching commercial voice over IP service, a spokesman said. When the company took a stake in VocalTec last August it agreed to spend $30m on the Israeli company’s products during the following two next two and a half years. Deutsche Telekom is far from being the only carrier interested in voice over IP. Apart from Telecom Finland, which spearheaded the use of IP telephony and AT&T and plans to offer voice over IP services, operators including Deutsche Telekom’s Global One partner, France Telecom have been testing voice over IP products. Concert will also be among the carriers that offer voice over IP services to international business clients toward the end of the year.
