Internet service provider PSINet Inc has announced a set of voice over internet services targeted at large companies. The first of three packages to be rolled out to the company’s 39,000 business subscribers is called iPEnterprise. With it, PSINet says companies with private branch exchanges (PBXs) should obtain carrier-grade voice services at a lower cost than comparable services from traditional telephone companies. That won’t thrill the telcos, who are both suppliers and customers to PSINet, and who have longstanding objections to the whole idea of voice over IP precisely because it is cheaper than old-fashioned telephony. The second service, iPEnterprise Plus, will extend voice communications to customers of PSINet’s extranet services. This second service is expected to support simplified dialing codes, desktop faxing, conference calling and unified messaging services. Most politically sensitive is the third service, iPGlobal, targeted ultimately at the consumer market. PSINet plans to build gateways to interconnect its global network with the public switched network. Presumably to avoid competing directly with the telco leviathans, PSINet plans to OEM the service. It hopes carriers and ISP customers will pounce on iPGlobal at wholesale rates, offering the services to retail consumers in their turn.
