veral manufacturers have introduced gateway servers that greatly expand the potential market by relaying Internet calls to and from ordinary telephones and fax machines (Levitt, 1997, 124).
Already, corporations are using these servers to route international calls over their data networks, avoiding local access fees, long distance charges, and high international rates. New telephone companies can use the relatively inexpensive gateways to quickly implement alternatives to traditional carrier networks (Freiden, Goldsmith, Takacs, & Hofacker, 1998, 212).
This is because it is virtually impossible to separately track voice or fax packets (explained in this paper below) traveling over the multitude of data networks that comprise the Internet. While gateway operators requiring connections to local telephone networks might be regulated and taxed, PC-to-PC Internet calls and internal corporate traffic probably are beyond the reach of regulators.
Internet telephony bridges the existing world of telephony and the New World of the Internet. Since many companies and individuals have established Internet and Intranet connections, the next step is to use them for telephony. With the telephony technology, companies can route their phone calls, fax and voice mail either through the Internet for cost savings, or over the public network for higher quality. It is claimed that Internet telephony will create the foundation for a new class of applications, many of which will become as common as your desktop phone (Freiden, Goldsmith, Takacs, & Hofacker, 1998, 212).
In 1997, Chief Executive Officer of General Electric, Jack Welch, addressed the World Economic Forum, a gathering of Fortune 500 leaders, world business leaders, chief government financial officials, and leading academic theorists. The theme of the meeting was "The Networked Society," and Welch had been asked to analyze the trends he saw developing for business in the 21st...