For now, users cannot converse across product lines: Netphone uses Maven technology, while each of the others have developed their own proprietry compression technology.

The Digiphone story has a lot of bumps.

When Iphone hit, the "word on the street" was that Camelot was right on Vocaltec's heels with the next generation - capable of running full duplex on a 386 at 9600 baud.

First, an early Digiphone demo ran into technical problems. Looking back, some of the earliest communications between Len and I expressed sympathy for that presenter; we knew there had to be a lot on the line.

Then, I attended one of the Camelot road shows and again the demo failed. This time in front of a pile of Wall Street Investment Bankers. Problems here are usually the business equivalent of a "head shot", especially for new technology.

Then I saw Digiphone again at PC Expo in New York. During the entire show, whenever I walked by their booth - nothing was working. Something to do with the ISP from Expo. Funny, everyone else had connectivty and I was able to telnet to my office several times.

The Camelot September, 1995 Wired Magazine ad ("Call Anywhere, Talk Forever, Never Pay Long Distance"), indicates Camelot is trying to directly compete with AT&T, MCI and Sprint. Well, so are the other Voice on the Net (VoN) products. But some U.S. ISPs have started charging for K/btyes transferred. This will bring the net cost of VoN communications for U.S. users more in line with the rest of the world where POTS charges are frequently more pay as you go. Well, this will take a while to become the norm (and it may not take hold, seeing the kind of competition in the ISP market), but it has the feel of getting more skiers on the slopes just as the snow is melting.

This may feel like an attack. We don't want it to be. We realize a lot of sweat and tears, not to mention money, has gone into the Digiphone effort. And the best thing would be success - everyone benefits there.

Then again, we are not aware of anybody who has received a beta copy of Digiphone - and this includes people who believe they are in the Camelot beta program because they filled out a form requesting the beta software. We are now wondering what the quality of the software will be if and when it ships in mid-September.

But this is a noteworthy release in a still infant market. And there have been missteps. For a while Camelot presented Digiphone as a low cost option, and pitched the fact that you didn't have to have a $25.00 Winsock, while extremely understating the need for a full duplex soundcard.

A major criticism of VoN technology is that both parties have to be on the Net to use it. VocalTec and Powwow both take a run at this problem, but not Digiphone. Iphone piggybacks on IRC to let you know who's there, while Powwow, independant of IRC, lets you peruse the last logons. Some version of a tool to let you know who's available to talk to is available.

Lastly, Digiphone is not available for evaluation on the Net. Products get cooked in that pot, but they tend to come out edible. "Try before you buy" is the Net's great contribution to exhibiting faith in your own product. With the kind of history we've seen, this feels like an end run around that ethic, and the existing VoN community.

Right now Digiphone is only available for Windows - but they have plans to ship both a Mac and OS/2 version of their product later this year.