The Wonders of Net2Phone

by tersIan

Just the other day I was thinking to myself, "Boy, isn't technology just great?"

Well, a new product by Net2Phone, a division of IDT (yes, the phone card people), reinforced my thoughts.  This product that allows you to have "real-time uninterrupted voice communication between the two calling parties" and "tears down the international telecom monopolies" was just the thing to brighten up my day.

So I downloaded it at their website at www.net2phone.com and installed it.  The software immediately requires you to register your name and address and all the normal annoying information that every company must have to track you down for mass snail mail spamming.  So I register and it gives me some hints and the normal installation garbage and then, all of a sudden, I have a graphical image of a nice digital phone on my desktop.

I was in heat to try this baby out, so I dialed up the first 800 number that came to mind and watched the software connect to one of IDT's phone switches.  In under three seconds, ringing came forth from my PC speakers and I was connected to the party I had called.  I picked up my microphone and said hello.  The operator responded.  I was so shocked that this had worked I accidentally hung up on her!  "Wow, this is neat," I thought to myself as I proceeded to call other 800/888 numbers that I knew.

What if I wanted to call numbers that weren't 800/888 numbers?  Well, they offer debit cards just like the ones you buy to make long distance calls on your regular phone.  The way this works is to buy a card via a credit card either by fax or right off their website.  They then give you a virtual card, i.e., a PIN via email after your card has been manually validated.  The cards are all in 25 dollar increments and are debited by the minute depending on the destination of the calls.  Your calls originate in New Jersey and are billed at IDT's rates from New Jersey to wherever you are calling.

The quality of the call is quite good if you realize what is being done in the background to facilitate the call.  Net2Phone, describes it as converting "the signal from the 'packet switch network' Internet environment to the 'circuit switch network' telephone environment."  The Push-To-Talk (PTT) module is seamless in operation and the Voice Activated (VOX) controls are a little rusty, but I suppose if you had a full-duplex sound card, it would be a lot easier to control.  However, either way, you are talking from your PC to someone's phone either domestically or internationally.

So, like any true tester of software, I sat down and thought long and hard about the faults and shortcomings of this software, and, lo and behold, I realized a couple of very important things.

The first thing I wondered was how they keep track of who is using what card where and how they keep track of all the calls.  Jordan Katz, head of Customer Service for Net2Phone, told me, "I have a terminal right here, I can see which account is making what call to where if I want to."  I thought to myself, "Oh, that's nice."  But I guess it's no different from AT&T operators seeing what calls you make.  So I asked Mr Katz: "What do you see as far as customer information?"  He replied, "I see whatever they put in their registration."

What if people want to know who is calling them?  What shows up in the ANI logs of the party receiving the call?  "Well, it depends on what server they connect to, but what shows up [on ANI] is one of IDT's switches," says Katz.  "Well, what if they want to find who actually made the call on a certain time or date?"  I asked.  Jordan replied, "Well again, we have their registration information."

Okay, so we get the idea that the registration information is passed by the software every time you make a call, or at least a signal is sent to the server to let them know that someone's registered software is making a call.

I asked Ari Blech, head of marketing for Net2Phone, "What does it log in the way of IP addresses?"  He thought for awhile and replied, "No logging of IPs, only logging of user registration, not to say that there isn't some sort of logging procedure."  He later went on to say, "We do not know where the call originated from..."

I asked Jordan about his concern for hackers doing bad things with his software.  He replied, "When we first started offering Net2Phone, we were worried about hackers getting someone else's PIN number, but now, since we have the secure web server up, the only way a hacker could get a debit card is to order one himself."

Jordan also told me of Net2Phone's plans to set up a complete online ordering system for the debit cards.  "This will be totally automatic, you just input your credit card number on the web site and you automatically have a card.  You can then add money to it as needed."

Upcoming plans for Net2Phone include Net2Phone Direct, a phone-to-Internet-to-phone based network.  "This would allow a customer to call a local number and have one of IDT's switches place the call internationally, avoiding all international phone charges," says Ari.  They are currently looking for international entrepreneurs who would be willing to join in the Net2Phone action.

This is a very interesting concept and IDT seems very "hush hush" about it for some reason.  Ari seemed very careful when speaking of telco deregulation in other countries, but did tell me that they just won a major European battle recently.  What this could mean is that via Net2Phone, you could connect to a European switch via the Internet and place a call to a local European exchange for the cost of a local call in Europe.

This will certainly have AT&T, MCI, and Sprint's panties all up in a bunch, and I am sure there will be lawsuits.  However, IDT has to buy blocks of long distance time from someone, so we shall see who they sell out to.  To call Europe for virtually free just sounds too good to be true, but this is what they are proposing.

As far as the domestic market, IDT doesn't seem very interested in placing their switches in other states, and rightly so.  If they were to do that, they would lose all the revenue from callers being forced to use a switch in New Jersey to make long distance domestic calls.  This would be a good thing for consumers, but would make no money for a long distance company, and of course we can't have that.

Another interesting thing on the fore-front of the IDT ranch is Phone2Phone, where someone would use the phone to call up a local, or WATS line and use the Internet to route a call to another switch to place the call.  Again, the other long distance companies will love this.  With the impending doom of metered Internet use, this would just be another piece of kindling for the telcos and long distance companies fueling the fire to burn up more of the public's money.

Why not take advantage of this software while you still can?  So far there is no charge to call 800 or 888 numbers and debit cards are for sale by fax or snail mail.  If you haven't already, I encourage you to download this new product and use it to its fullest extent.  It certainly is a very useful product, if you are a creative person.  I am sure you can find many uses for it.