Up-Front
C&W to useInternet Technology on All Calls -
Thesame blocked for use by Net2Phone Users
Richard Baum / Reportingby Dan Lalor
EDITOR'S NOTE:Following on the heels of a writ filed in the Grand Court of theCayman Islands, 14 September, 2000 by Net2Phone, Inc. of the UnitedStates, Silvanus Technologies Limited, a local Company and HowardPeterson, the Managing Director of Silvanus, against Cable andWireless, comes the news that Cable & Wireless PLc of Britain,the parent Company of Cable & Wireless (Cayman) Ltd, has signeda deal with Nortel Networks Corp. of Canada to utilise Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol(VoIP) - the very same technology now used by Net2Phone - to routetheir telecommunications traffic. The following is the full reportfrom London:
Britain's Cable and WirelessPlc on Monday said it was embarking on the world's most ambitiousproject to route telecommunications traffic using Internet technologiesinstead of conventional switches.
The corporate telecoms company said it signed a 950 million pound($1.40 billion) deal with Nortel Networks Corp. of Canada to changeits global network to voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) whichroutes telecoms traffic at a quarter of the cost of electronicswitches.
C&W shares were up 0.2 percent at 966 pence.
Both companies said it was the most aggressive move by any companyinto VoIP, which is forecast to handle 900 billion minutes ofphone calls by 2006 compared with 675 million minutes last year.
VoIP allows telecoms companies to replace much of their bulkyswitching equipment with Internet servers, using software forwork currently done by hardware. The standard is also better atintegrating voice and data.
Clarence Chandran, Nortel's chief operating officer, told Reutershe expected telecoms companies to spend $15 billion moving toVoIP over the next four years. The company was also providingthe technology to British Telecommunications Plc and France Telecom.
"This is a landmark agreement, not just for ourselves andCable & Wireless, but for the industry as a whole," hesaid in a statement.
Nortel, the world's number two network equipment supplier, willmanage C&W's VoIP network for 10 years under the contract.
C&W said it was developing new products to take advantageof VoIP, including desktop video conferencing and advanced callredirection services.
It is already investing $3.5 billion in an Internet network thatit says will be more international and reliable than any other.