THE PULVER REPORT(TM)

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The October 8, 1998 Issue:

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In this issue:

- Heard on the Net
- IP Telephony JOBS 
- Jeff Pulver announces the founding of Min-X.com, "The Minutes Exchange"
- NextGen Service Providers need to be able to offer EQUAL ACCESS
- 1999 Will be the year of the APPLICATION
- US West joins BellSouth with ACCESS CHARGES on ITSPs 
- Recap: Fall '98 Voice on the Net
- Business Networking AFTER Fall '98 VON
- WINNERS of the pulver.com / ITXC Contest
- VON Coalition Update
- Internet Telephony Solutions for the Enterprise
- Fax on the Net '98
- Call for Speakers
- Internet Telephony Solutions for Call Centers
- Spring '99 Voice on the Net
- pulver.com 1998 Conference/Workshop Calendar 

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Heard on the Net

Company News
--------------

The past month has been a busy one in the IP Telephony Industry.
If I had the room I could spend this entire Pulver Report just recaping
the recent IP Telephony Headline News.

There were a number of announcements made at Fall '98 VON including:

- VocalTec / Lucent / ITXC Interoperablity Demonstrated at Fall '98 VON
( http://www.vocaltec.com ) ( http://www.lucent.com ) ( http://www.itxc.com)

- US West Launches Internet Call Waiting
( http://www.uswest.com ) ( http://www.efusion.com )

- Lucent Packetstar IP Services Platform helps solve IP Telphony
provide Interopablity
( http://www.lucent.com )


Recent Strategic Relationships Announced:
-----------------------------------------

September, 1998 was a pretty busy one for the announcement of
Strategic Relationships. Some of the recent Strategic relationships
announced include:

- ITXC and Bell Atlantic
- ITXC and Japan Telecom
- Ericsson and Breezecom 
- Amdocs and Vocaltec
- 3Com and .comfax
- Telephony Networks and Touchwave
- Cisco and Hitachi
- US West and eFusion
- Delta Three and Quintel
- Glocalnet and Swiss Online
- Ascend and Mind CTI
- Vocaltec and Excel Switching
- Solect and dynamicsoft
- MediaRing and InnoMedia

For daily news updates regarding the Internet Telephony Industry
please visit http://pulver.com/news

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IP Telephony Jobs

As I have written before, from time to time companies approach me
asking whether I know of any individuals well versed in some aspect
of IP Telephony to fill gaps in their management team. Many of these
companies like to use the Voice on the Net Conference as the venue
for meeting potential candidates. In order to help foster this activity,
we have created the IP Telephony Jobs website at http://pulver.com/jobs 

The headlines to any of the positions posted to IP Telephony Jobs will
be reproduced in the Pulver Report. Here's our first batch:

- Ascend: Senior/Principal Software Engineers - VoIP 
- AT&T: IP Telephony Product Manager 
- Glocal Media Concepts: IP Telephony Product Manager
- ITXC: Billing Developer 
- ITXC: Senior IP Telephony Service Platform Developer 
- London startup: Technical Director for London based 
IP Telephony Business

If you are interested in pursuing any of these positions, just visit
the website for full details. If you would like to post a job opening,
the fee is US$500 per month per listing. Feel free to e-mail: jobs@pulver.com
or visit http://pulver.com/jobs for more information. 

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Jeff Pulver announces the founding of Min-X.com, "The Minutes Exchange"

Ever since the concept was first discussed at the "Reinventing the
PSTN/IP Gateway" workshop which was held in Sophia Antipolis back in
February, 1998 I've been working on the idea of establishing an exchange
where Minutes could be traded as a commodity.

And after speaking to some of the delegates who attended Fall '98 VON it
become clear to me that the opportunity to establish the Minutes Exchange
was a "now" opportunity. As a result I'm proud to announce the 
founding of Min-X.com ("The Minutes Exchange") The website is up at
http://pulver.com/min-x

I founded The Minutes Exchange to act as the Market Maker between parties 
who are either originating and/or terminating IP Telephony Minutes. The 
operation of The Minutes Exchange will be similar to the "Broker's 
Brokers" which operate on Wall Street on a "Name Giveup" basis. 
Translation - while the Bids and Offers of the Minutes listed on
on our Trading Screen(s) will remain Anonymous, we will be
introducing the parties who are originating and terminating the
minutes after the deal completed.

Following the trends set in place by the Carriers who sign Bi-lateral
agreements, I believe in the long run both parties who are involved
in a Minutes transaction will need to know each other.

Membership in the Minutes Exchange will be open to those companies which
are interested in having The Minutes Exchange act as a Market Maker, agree
to pay the Minutes Exchange commissions, have verified capacity for 
either originating or terminating IP Telephony minutes, and pass the 
credit standards set by Min-X.com. 

Min-X.com anticipates opening additional dealing desks to handle Minutes
Brokerage opportunities in other Global Minutes Marketplaces such as:
GSM, Cable, Satellite and PSTN Spot rates.

The Minutes Exchange will be holding "Dealing Meetings" at least four times 
a year and will act as the Market Maker between parties who have the verified
capacity to originate and/or terminate IP Telephony Minutes. pulver.com
will be organizing these meetings on behalf of The Minutes Exchange. 
A nominal fee will be charged to Members of the Minutes Exchange to 
attend each of the meetings. 

The first Dealing Meeting is tentatively scheduled Dec. 10 & 11 at a yet to
be determined hotel venue near JFK Airport. 

The Minutes Exchange will maintain a listing of the active markets on a private
webpage which is available only to members of the Minutes Exchange. 

Members of the Minutes Exchange are required to send at least one 
representative to each of the "Dealing Meetings" if their minutes have 
been listed on the Min-X.com's Minutes Exchange webpages in the period 
prior to the meeting. 

We are also considering offering real-time brokerage services between
parties which have attended at least one "Dealing Meeting" in the past
calendar year and who agree in advance to pay The Minutes Exchange 
commissions based on contracts which they have in place between 
themselves and Min-X.com.

I've included the following Questions and Answers from the Min-X.com FAQ to
better help explain the operation of The Minutes Exchange.

Requirements of the Parties:

Parties who wish to have their terminating minutes listed on the 
Min-X.com dealing screen(s) agree in advance to pay Min-X.com a 
brokerage fee. 

Qualification for Membership to the Minutes Exchange:

In order to become a qualified member of the Minutes Exchange, companies 
may be required to provide credit references as well as contacts at the 
vendor(s) which has supplied their IP Telephony Gateways so Min-X.com can 
verify their operating capacity. 

Min-X.com reserves the absolute right to approval / disapprove membership 
in the Minutes Exchange. If a company is not approved, said company 
may re-apply for membership in sixty days.

Market Making in between Dealing Meetings

During the course of 1999, we anticipate situations where we may either 
move to hold meetings on either a monthly basis or start to offer daily 
brokering opportunities between existing members of the Minutes 
Exchange. Our contracts will need to be signed in advance of having 
Min-X.com facilitate the introduction between the parties.

The Minutes Exchange does not offer Clearing House or Settlement Services

The Minutes Exchange does not and will not offer either Clearing House or
Settlement Services between their clients. Min-X.com fully supports the 
efforts of third-party clearing houses which offer a variety of services, 
including the monitoring of QoS and enforcement of Service Level
Agreements. 

Members of The Minutes Exchange can elect for the Settlement/Clearing 
services of any of the independent third-party Settlement/Clearing houses 
that are members to provide Settlement/Clearing services whenever they are 
needed.

For more information regarding Min-X.com, please feel free to visit
http://pulver.com/min-x/

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NextGen Service Providers should be able to offer EQUAL ACCESS 

All NextGen Service Providers should be given the opportunity 
to have Equal Access. By doing so, NextGen Service Providers can then 
start to become the default carrier of choice for both residential and 
commercial customers.

But, is the Industry ready to supoort this right now?

To help make this a reality available equipment in the marketplace 
must actively support this notion. For example, Single Stage
Dialing for Gateways needs to become the norm.

The industry also needs to quickly provide solutions which help Service
Providers determine whether an incoming call is: Voice, Fax or a Modem
Call. (And if it is a modem call, don't always assume that a 64k channel will
be available for the call.)

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1999 Will be the year of the APPLICATION 

Looking at the brief history of Internet Telephony, I label the years 
as follows:

1995 - The year of the Hobbyist
1996 - The year of the IP Telephony Client
1997 - The year of the Gateway
1998 - The year of the Gatekeeper
1999 - The year of the Application

I'm sticking my neck out here just a little when declaring 1999 as the
year of the application. Frankly, once the arbitrage opportunities 
start to erode if Service Providers don't have anything to offer which
helps to differentiate their service offerings, I challange these companies
ability to sustain themselves in a highly competitive marketplace which
will have low profit margins.

So, as the Internet Telephony industry continues to evolve, 1999 will be
the perfect year for Application Developers to start rolling out those
"X over IP Services" which will enable Service Providers to offer products
and services which were never before practical or possible.

For examples of some of these applications, please take a look at the recent 
work of: eFusion, VideoServer, Hot Voice, Web Telecom, Net2phone and
FoneFriend Systems.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
US West Joins BellSouth and will start imposing Access Charges on ITSPs

It didn't take very long for US West to join BellSouth in imposing
Access Charges on Internet Telephony Service Providers.

The only thing that amazed me is what took US West and the other RBOCs
so long to try to collect Access Charges. While the current Administration 
in the White House appears to be against the regulation of IP Telephony
in the United States, this hasn't stopped US West or BellSouth in attempting
to impose Access Charges.

Looking at the maturity of the current marketplace I don't believe that
BellSouth or US West would be collecting enough incremental money in 
access charges in 1999 to really justify the costs associated their 
enforcement of this new policy.

I would also find it very hard to believe that many (if any) ITSPs
went into business just so they could avoid paying access charges to 
RBOCs. While every penny per minute saved literally is a penny earned,
the payment of Access Charges by ITSPs should not make the difference 
whether an ITSP can sustain their business. If this does make a 
difference I'd like to meet the Investment Banker who funded the 
company's business plan.

But whether or not Access Chargers are currently being charged by BellSouth
or other RBOCs, I believe that unless "preemptive measures" are taken -
it will be only a matter of time until all RBOCs attempt to collect
from ITSPs who are operating in the territory of a RBOC.

The biggest challenge facing RBOCs will be their ability to enforce
their new position without affecting the ISP community. Of course, the
market timing is now great for the introduction of IP Telephony applications
which blur line between 'black phone to black phone' service and offer a set
of value added services. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recap: Fall '98 Voice on the Net

Fall '98 Voice on the Net took place September 14-17 at the 
Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

To pull together an event like Fall '98 VON it takes the hard work and
support of many people and I'd like to thank everybody who contributed
to the success of the conference, including the speakers and moderators
who helped set the tone of the event. I'd also like to thank the
conference sponsors and exhibitors for their continued support. 

Fall '98 VON was our largest event to date with a total of over 1,525
delegates and 196 speakers bringing the total to over 1,700 people.
We also had 70 exhibitors in our combined exhibit areas.
For those of you who spend the week with us I would have to agree that 
the building felt like we were living inside a "Monolith". It turns out 
that the building is the 2nd largest Federal Building next to the Pentagon. 

I introduced a new pre-conference workshop - "Building the IP Central Office"
and based on the feedback that I received on-site and via e-mail I will
be repeating this workshop again at Spring '99 VON. I will also be repeating
the NextGen Telco Summit and our PSTN/IP Gateway, Gatekeeper and IP Billing

When the conference opened on September 14th I knew were in for something
special when Reed Hundt (former FCC Chairman) made an unscheduled speech while
Jim Crowe (CEO, Level 3) was onstage. I've taken the liberty of making 
Jim Crowe's and Reed Hundt's presentations available via RealAudio. 
Reed took the opportunity to freely express his viewpoints - something
he really couldn't do when he was Chairman of the FCC.
You can listen to their presentations while downloading the 
presentations from http://pulver.com/von98/fall98 .

For those of you who sat in the Amphitheater, when looking at where many
people choose to sit, I felt that I was back in College in one of the more
popular lecture halls.

Overall the conference continued it's trend of being an international
event. About 30% of the delegates were from outside the United States and
all of the major contients (not including Antartica) was represented.

One of the things that I took away was that the discussions this iteration
moved away from "Free (or Cheap) Long Distance" and focused more on the
need for next generation applications. Several of the Industry Perspectives
focused on the "always connected home" and I think there is a lot more thinking
that will be going on to address the effects of what it is like to be living
in an "always on" world.

On Wednesday the 15th we had the honor to host a lunch for the Israeli
Embassy and we took a moment to pay tribute to some of the industry leaders
whose roots and technology come from Israel. 

Wednesday night was the party at Sequoia's and close to 800 people helped
welcome Eagle-Eye Cherry to his Washington, DC premiere performance. Those
of you who were at the party also had a chance to hear my wife Risa and
Brother-in-Law Farrell together with our friends from Oslo Thomas and Nina
since backup on what has become the VON Party Theme song, the old
Wison Picket tune, "Mustang Sally".

The "Show me the Minutes" general session on Thursday morning yielded
a working number of 18-20 IP Telephony Million minutes a month that 
presents the combined activity of Interline, IDT and DeltaThree.
Based on the other information reported to me, I'm estimating that in 
September, 1998 the Total IP Telephony Minutes represented by Service
Providers is 35 Million Minutes which is up from the reported 6.3 Million
minutes a month reported by Frost and Sullivan back in December, 1997.

On Thursday Larry Irving from the NTIA reiterated the position 
of the Administration that for the short term Internet Telephony should
not be regulated in the United States. 

In the past I have gotten used to other shows trying to get setup right
after our event closed. But instead of having another conference come into
the Reagan building it was the Secret Service doing "sweeps" that caught a 
few of us off guard. It turned out that Hillary Clinton was using the
facility that evening for a fundraiser and that the Secret Service for
security purposes was conducting sweeps of different areas of the building
during the course of the afternoon. Some of the exhibitors told me their
first hand experiences dealing with the Secret Service.

I'm currently working on the content to be covered for Spring '99 VON.
If you have any suggestions for the speakers you would like to see or
the content that you would like to see covered, please feel free to e-mail
me directly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Business Networking AFTER Fall '98 VON 

To help facilitate the Business Networking opportunities after Fall '98 VON,
pulver.com recently introduced the eMail Network. Speakers and Delegates
who attended the conference were e-mailed a PIN code which enabled them
to log into the eMail Network at http://sliders.pulver.com/von98.

The purpose of the eMail Network is to provide a means for people to
continue their business networking after the conference. Each person who
is registered on the network receives an e-mail address consisting of 
firstname.lastname@von98.pulver.com and the email is automatically forward 
to the Delegate's preferred email address.

The eMail Network for Fall '98 VON will remain operational until March, 1999.

Those who register to attend Spring '99 Voice on the Net will receive a PIN
code in advance of the conference, together with an electronic copy of the
Delegate list to get a head start on the Business Networking activities
when they get onsite.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
WINNERS of the ITXC / pulver.com Application Contest 

In June, 1998 Tom Evslin, Chairman of ITXC and I announced a contest which 
was specifically designed to encourage innovators in the field of 
IP telephony applications. 

Awards were given at Fall '98 Voice on the Net in two categories: 
voice-enhanced computer applications and no-computer-required "black 
phone" applications. 

The winners of the contest were:

Black Phone Category: Hot Voice 
Voice-enhanced Computer Applications: Web telecom

The runners up were:

Net2Phone in the Black Phone category and FoneFriend Systems in the 
enhanced category with the FoneFriend device which allows IP calls with a 
device that a phone plugs into.

The awards were given out during the opening of Fall '98 Voice on the
Net on September 15th. While Tom was handing out the awards he stated:
"Internet telephony is the first use of the Internet to benefit even 
those who don't have computers. Inexpensive telephony is only the 
beginning; there is a flood of innovation underway, as this contest 
demonstrates, which will bring benefits to both phone users and computer 
users."

Each of the winners will be provided free transportation to and booth 
space at Spring '99 Voice on The Net. 

ITXC, pulver.com and Dialogic will be sponsoring another iteration of
this contest and the winners will be announced at Spring '99 VON in
Las Vegas. Specific details regarding the new contest will be announced
in November, 1998.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
VON Coalition - Update 

The VON Coalition Announces Incorporation.

In late September, 1998 the VON Coalition announced official launch of 
the Voice on Net (VON) Coalition as an incorporated non profit 
organization. Originally founded two years ago by Jeff Pulver, the VON 
Coalition intends to continue to recommend action on regulation and 
legislation that affects public policy of the Voice on the Net industry, 
and to educate regulators, legislators, media and consumers worldwide 
about VON technologies, products, benefits, and practices. 

Current participants in the VON Coalition include Founding members 3COM, 
Brooktrout Technology, Cisco Systems, Dialogic, Intel, ITXC, Microsoft, 
Natural Microsystems, Netspeak, Polycom, Portal Software, pulver.com, USA 
Global Link, and VocalTec Communications, and Members Clarent, Dynamicsoft, 
Lucent Technologies, PakNetX, Poptel, Tele Danmark R&D, Vienna Systems 
and VIP Calling.

Since its grass roots formation in 1996, the VON Coalition has become 
the official moderator for the entire IP telephony industry, and is 
receiving overwhelming support from computer and telecommunication 
industry leaders. 

"Regulatory and tax forbearance has made the Internet the success it is" 
said Tom Evslin, Chair of the VON Coalition's Policy Committee and 
Chairman of ITXC. "The US is a world leader in preventing regulation and 
new taxation of Internet commerce, and there is no better example of 
Internet commerce than an Internet phone call. We believe it is important 
to focus on creating a level playing field by deregulating traditional 
service providers rather than by regulating new entrants."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Telephony Solutions for the Enterprise

Internet Telephony Solutions for the Enterprise is taking place in
London during Voice Europe '98 on October 19-20.
( see http://www.callvoice.com/ve98 for 
details regarding Voice Europe)

As the Internet Telephony Industry continues to grow and expand beyond 
the world of carriers and service providers, 1999 will be the first 
year that major Enterprises from around the world start to significantly 
deploy IP Voice Technologies. 

pulver.com has developed this two day workshop which is being offered in 
London to the Delegates attending Voice Europe '98. We have invited 
the speakers and the companies responsible for developing some of the 
"killer applications" which will be the main driving force for the 
widespread deployment of IP Voice technologies into the Enterprise over 
the next 12 - 18 months. 

Companies participating in this new workshop include:
pulver.com, Dialogic, Natural Microsystems, Cisco, eFusion, Selsius, Symbol,
Clarent, Calista, StarVox, Philips, Nortel, Netcentric, VocalTec, Netcall,
Motorola, Digi International, RADVision, GlocalNet and IBM.

More information regarding this workshop is available at 
http://pulver.com/solutions

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fax on the Net '98

As the Fax on the Net Industry matures, the team at pulver.com felt that 
the timing was right to introduce: Fax on the Net our first event whose 
entire focus is on the emerging Fax over IP Industry.

The conference will be taking place November 13, 1998 at the 
Golden Tulip Barbizon Palace, Prins, Hendrikkade 59-72, 012 AD, 
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 

The event is being teamed with IP Telephony 98 which runs 11-12th 
November. More information regarding IP Telephony '98 is 
available at: http://www.firstconf.com/ip

At Fax on the Net you will have an opportunity to listen to the 
senior executives responsible for driving the industry forward and will 
also have a great opportunity to meet with these players and take 
advantage of the unique business networking opportunities. 

During Fax on the Net you will have an opportunity to get 
updated on the State of the IP Fax Industry and attend sessions covering: 
IP Fax Standards, IP Fax Hardware, Enterprise Application Platform 
Providers, Making FoIP Services a Reality at the Global/Carrier Level,
How Smaller ISPs, Fax Bureaus and Entrepreneurs Profit, and 
Fax Over IP Billing and Testing Issues. 

Companies speaking at Fax on the Net include: The Kauffman Group, 
Brooktrout, Dialogic, Natural Microsystems, Ericsson Telecom AB, Open Port, 
Netcentric, British Telecom, FaxSav, GTE Fax, Fax2Net, Voice & Data 
Systems, NKO/ECI Telecom, KPN Telecom, CyberCall, Infozech, Telegra and 
pulver.com. 

More information regarding Fax on the Net '98 and to register, please
feel free to visit http://pulver.com/fax98

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Call for Speakers - for future pulver.com Workshops and Conferences

- Internet Telephony Solutions for Call Centers
will be taking place February 1-2, 1998 in Dallas Texas during
Call Center '99. If you are interested in speaking at this
new workshop, please submit your proposal by October 30, 1998
to: http://pulver.com/callcenter/speaking.html

- Spring '99 Voice on the Net 
will be taking place April 13-16 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.
If you are interested in speaking at the the conference or at
our pre-conference workshops (Building the IP Based Central Office
or The NextGen Telco Summit), please submit your proposal by
November 11, 1998 to:
http://pulver.com/von99/speaking.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------
pulver.com 1998/99 Conference/Workshop Calendar

Oct 19/20 - Internet Telephony Solutions for the Enterprise - London, UK
( http://www.callvoice.com/ve98 )

Nov 13 - Fax on the Net - Amsterdam, Netherlands
( http://www.pulver.com/fax98 )


Feb 1-2 '99 - Internet Telephony Solutions for Call Centers - Dallas, TX
during Call Center '99 

April 13-16 '99 - Spring '99 Voice on the Net - At the Rio Hotel in
Las Vegas, Nevada. 
( http://www.pulver.com/von99 )

June 21-24 '99 - Voice on the Net Europe '99 - Oslo, Norway

Sept 27-30 '99 - Fall '99 Voice on the Net - Atlanta, GA

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for future issues would be greatly appreciated.


Jeff Pulver Tel. +1.516.753.2640 
The Pulver Report Fax. +1.516.293.3996
October 8, 1998
(c) 1998 pulver.com, Inc. http://www.pulver.com/reports

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