Lucent Technologies Inc has thrown its weight behind internet telephony – but unlike competing offerings, which have taken the form of single-user software packages, it is developing a server-based offering pitched directly at the corporate marketplace. The plans were announced at last week’s Networld+InterOp show in Atlanta. Indeed, the timing of the announcement – coming just as Lucent gains its new-found independence from AT&T Corp – implies the now liberated company is releasing technologies previously witheld because of conflicts of interest with its then parent. The new internet Telephony Server is designed to enable users to route phone calls, facsimile messages and voice mail over the internet, or over the public switched telephone network. The product uses core technology from Lucent’s Multi-Media Communications Exchange, announced last year (CI No 2,783) and is designed to enable users to select different classes of service according to the sensitivity of a transmission: a user could choose to send a non-confidential facsimile over the Internet, for example, or over the public switched telephone network if it is of a sensitive nature. Initial availability of the Telephony Server is slated for the first quarter next year, with general availability the following quarter. Also for the MultiMedia Exchange is a new application that bears a strong similarity to the instant Answers system that AT&T announced a few weeks ago (CI No 2,992) – although in one respect, it significantly improves on the AT&T offering. Both systems are designed to integrate call center operatives with the internet, the idea being that Web surfers needing more information on a product can click on an icon and simultaneously speak with a customer service representative. However, while AT&T instant Answers requires users to have two phone lines – one for the Web connection, the other used by the customer service representative to call up the user – the new Lucent technology, called internet Call Center, needs just one connection, which can be used simultaneously for both speech and Web communications.
Another new offering
It can be used with any speech-enabled Web browser, according to Lucent. Another new offering is the internet Directory Server, designed to enable network operators to offer electronic commerce applications, such as an electronic telephone directory . Within the directory, says Lucent, subscriber profile databases can also be built, to offer internet and intranet users person-alised navigation services. A new venture from Bell Laboratories has also been announced. Called elemedia (CI No.3,004) – which is short for elements for multimedia – it claims to have developed breakthrough speech and music compression technology that gives the same quality and richness of sound to internet speech traffic that regular telephony traffic enjoys. The technology is part of a new Media Plus family. It has been applied to speakerphone software that is claimed to provide full-duplex capabilities to personal computers and internet telephone devices, and audio software – said to support music-on-demand and real-time audio broadcasting – producing CD-quality stereo sound. Elemedia says it is currently developing videoconferencing-over- the-internet software as part of Media Plus; this is intended for launch next quarter. Lucent has also updated its Intuity Messaging Solutions for the internet era: the most recent release enables users to use any touch-tone phone to access their voice and – through text-to-speech technology – facsimile and electronic mail messages. The enhancement is claimed to give the same capabilities as any Web browser. Lucent used Java to provide the new features, and says it will beg-in beta trials of the system in the first quarter of 1997, with general availability slated for the second half. It did not give pricing for the new products; this will be announced as they become available.
