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Net2Phone
Unveils Wi-Fi VoIP Strategy
Net2Phone to enable service providers with Wi-Fi telephony, extending
mobility and flexibility of VoIP
IDT to deploy Wi-Fi phone service utilizing Net2Phone’s platform
Newark, NJ - April 22, 2004 - Net2Phone (NASDAQ: NTOP) today announced
plans to deliver a suite of wireless VoIP solutions to service providers
globally, enabling them to empower residential and corporate users
worldwide with mobile VoIP applications. Building on its recently
announced VoiceLine broadband telephony offering, Net2Phones
wireless VoIP solutions will offer service providers SIP-based hosted
wireless telephony services that can be sold to their customers
as an enhancement to their existing product set.
Wireless VoIP extends the existing reach of voice and data services
by removing the necessity for copper or fiber last-mile access to
the Internet. Net2Phone routes all calls over wireless IP networks
to its SIP-based platform, which performs call management, provides
Class 5 features, billing, provisioning and enhanced services and
distributes the infrastructure required for interconnecting onto
and off of the PSTN network. Net2Phone offers service providers
an affordable mobile telephony solution together with a complete
set of features and functionality, including inbound and outbound
calling with phone number selection, call waiting, caller ID and
voicemail.
The company also announced that its first customer, IDT Corporation
(NYSE: IDT), a leading multinational carrier and technology company,
plans to deploy commercial Wi-Fi phone service in a series of locations
throughout the United States. The Ironbound area of Newark, New
Jersey will be the first area covered and will enable users in residential
and affordable housing to bypass local phone companies and make
domestic and international phone calls via a wireless connection
to the Internet.
Demand for wireless IP local area networks or Wi-Fi (802.11) continues
to grow, with Pyramid Research projecting 700 million Wi-Fi users
globally by 2008. Wi-Max, an extended wireless broadband network
reaching as far as 25 miles, is becoming a viable alternative for
customers to receive high-speed Internet access in rural areas and
in areas where wired broadband is not an option because of low high-speed
data availability. By extending its retail VoIP offerings to the
wireless environment, Net2Phone can ride the wave of wireless broadband
deployments by offering a bundle of telephony in conjunction with
a high-speed wireless data offer.
Net2Phones wireless solutions remove the tether associated
with VoIP, delivering the flexibility of a cellular phone anywhere
in the world there is a Wi-Fi hotspot, without the need to be tied
to a cell phone carrier, said Stephen Greenberg, CEO of Net2Phone.
Net2Phone is well positioned to ride the burgeoning Wi-Fi
network explosion to offer consumers and businesses affordable mobile
telephony solutions.
Wireless VoIP Partnership Opportunities
As Net2Phone is an enabler for service providers, globally, Net2Phone
can also seamlessly integrate its front and back office systems,
including its billing platform, into its partners infrastructures,
thereby facilitating a unified bill for high-speed data, telecommunications
and other services. Target partners include:
- Wireless ISPs (WISPs): With more than 30 million US homes
that cannot access cable or DSL service, Net2Phone can offer WISPs
telephony services as a bundle to their high-speed wireless product,
both within local wireless environments, such as cafes and airports,
as well as Wi-Max deployments throughout entire cities.
- Rural Opportunities: Residents in rural areas may
benefit from broadband Internet access as well as competitive
telephony service. With more cities and municipalities offering
their populace extensive long-range wireless networks in their
locales, Net2Phone can offer full featured inbound and outbound
calling capabilities within those networks.
- Wireline High-Speed Data Providers: Net2Phone can empower
high-speed data providers, such as cable and DSL operators, with
mobile telephony solutions, thereby extending the reach and flexibility
of their broadband telephony service.
- Wireless Home Networks: Within a home networking environment,
users can roam throughout the house with a Wi-Fi phone. End
users can then use the Net2Phone service anytime they are
within a hotspot, either at home or on the road.
- Public Hotspots: Customers can take their Wireless VoiceLine
account and phone number and roam onto any open hotspot to
place and receive calls. This strategy is very similar to
the RBOCs strategy of offering their DSL customers free
data roaming on their hotspots to further extend their value
proposition to their customers.
- OEMs
- Cell Phone Manufacturers: Net2Phone is also in discussions
with cell phone manufacturers that are creating dual mode
cell phones for both cell phone and VoIP usages.
- PDA Manufacturers: PDA manufacturers can also add software
to their devices that can enable a wireless PDA with phone
functionality using Net2Phone.
Layer incremental SIP telephony services
Net2Phone can also enable its partners to offer to their subscribers,
residential telephony services, prefix dialing services and calling
cards. By marketing multiple telephony services to their subscribers
using one unified account and platform, partners can maximize their
telephony revenue per subscriber.
About Net2Phone
Net2Phone provides PacketCable, SIP and wireless VoIP solutions
around in the world. As leaders in enabling telecom service providers
and cable operators with turn-key hosted VoIP telephony services,
Net2Phone has routed billions of retail VoIP minutes globally, servicing
more than 100,000 users in the US as well as hundreds of thousands
of more overseas. Net2Phones hosted SIP platform provides
partners with residential broadband telephony, calling cards, prefix
dialing and enterprise services in over 100 countries. Net2Phones
PacketCable platform provides cable operators with the ability to
deliver a primary line replacement service with guaranteed QoS and
features such as E911. Traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol NTOP,
Net2Phone's strategic partners and investors include Liberty Media
Corporation (NYSE: L; LMC.B) and IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT; IDT.C).
For more information about Net2Phone's products and services, please
visit www.net2phone.com <http://www.net2phone.com>.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
These forward- looking statements involve risks and uncertainties
and actual results could differ materially from those discussed
in the forward-looking statements. For this purpose, any statements
contained in this press release that are not statements of historical
fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Factors which
may affect the Company's results include, but are not limited to,
the Company's ability to expand its customer base, the Company's
ability to develop additional and leverage its existing distribution
channels for its products and solutions, dependence on strategic
and channel partners including their ability to distribute the Company's
products and meet or renew their financial commitments, the Company's
ability to address international markets, the effectiveness of the
Company's sales and marketing activities, the acceptance of the
Company's products in the marketplace, the timing and scope of deployments
of the Company's products by customers, fluctuations in customer
sales cycles, customers' ability to obtain additional funding, technical
difficulties with respect to the Company's products or products
in development, the need for ongoing product development in an environment
of rapid technological change, the emergence of new competitors
in the marketplace, the Company's ability to compete successfully
against established competitors with greater resources, the uncertainty
of future governmental regulation, the Company's ability to manage
growth, obtain patent protection, and obtain additional funds, general
economic conditions and other risks discussed in this press release
and in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
All forward-looking statements and risk factors included in this
document are made as of the date hereof, based on information available
to the Company as of the date thereof, and the Company assumes no
obligation to update any forward-looking statement or risk factors.
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