| Web calls offered at low, no cost
By FRANK VINLUAN
REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER
October 20, 2005
WebPoint, a West Des Moines company, hopes customers will pay for extra services, such as faxing.
A West Des Moines company entered the competitive business of phone service on Wednesday by offering a twist: The number is free.
WebPoint Communications provides phone service with technology that sends calls over the Internet. Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, has caught on among those seeking to trim long-distance bills.
"It's like sending an e-mail, except that it's voice and it's real time," WebPoint Chief Executive Kha Phan said.
Internet calling is typically priced like cell-phone service. A monthly fee buys a bucket of minutes. WebPoint is offering service at low or no cost and betting that customers will pay for extra services, such as faxing.
VoIP reached 1.5 million users in 2005, according to Frost & Sullivan, a consulting company. Use is projected to grow to more than 18 million users by 2010. Lynda Starr, a Frost & Sullivan analyst, said most users of the technology are "early adopters" who are interested in new technology.
Phan is targeting his phone service to particular users. For example, the number could be used by someone in sales, solely for client calls.
The service could also be used by dating services. Men and women often enter such services with secondary e-mail addresses as the contact information. WebPoint numbers would provide voice communication protecting home or cell phone numbers.
But whether the users are in California, New York or Hong Kong, the WebPoint numbers they are given will be Iowa numbers. WebPoint is a joint venture with 13 small, independent Iowa telephone companies. Phone companies are allocated numbers in blocks of 10,000, and the small Iowa companies, some serving fewer than 1,000 customers, have plenty of numbers to spare.
"We're taking phone numbers in Iowa and giving them to the rest of the world," Phan said. The Iowa phone number is free. WebPoint will provide a number with the area code of a customer's choice for $5.
While inbound calls are always free, outbound calls in the United States cost 3 cents a minute. Calls between WebPoint users are always free. Other services, such as conferencing and faxing, have not yet been priced.
Phan said WebPoint's service will comply with 911 calling. But he does not advocate customers dropping their primary phone service. WebPoint phone numbers are not intended to be the primary phone lines, he said.
Reporter Frank Vinluan can be reached at (515) 284-8211 or fvinluan@dmreg.com
What's needed
To get WebPoint's phone service, a user needs a computer, a high-speed Internet connection and a headset. Software can be downloaded at www. webpointcommunications .com.
Free services include voice mail, call waiting and caller ID. WebPoint sells a $50 adapter that permits use of a standard telephone instead of the headset.
Iowa phone numbers are free. But WebPoint provides numbers with other U.S. area codes for $5.
|
