WWW: Beyond the Basics

24. Ubiquitous Internet Computing

24.8 Internet Phone and Video

Several companies sell Internet telephone products (Williams:1996a) to save long-distance charges by placing phone calls over the Internet. Netscape and Internet Explorer both ship with telephony support, but currently there is no telephony standard, making widespread use impossible. When the standards battle (Williams:1996b) is finally settled, Internet phone use could skyrocket. International Data Corp.(International Data Corp.:1996) predicts 16 million users of Internet phone by 1999, with a potential $560 million in sales. (For more information on Internet telephony, read the Audio/Video chapter in this book or visit Jeff Pulver's home page.(Pulver:1996)) (Abate:1996)

Once standards are in place, videoconferencing, shared white-boards and shared programs will become common applications of the Internet.

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Copyright © 1996 Ingrid E. Burbey, All Rights Reserved

Ingrid Burbey <74001.1443@compuserve.com>
Last modified: Wed Dec 11 1996