|
|
October, 1997 |
  
|
New Applications....Vocaltec Unveils Surf&Call Netphone TechnologyThe Israeli company has just taken the wraps off Surf&Call, a system that allows Web users to talk to live sales agents by clicking on a Web site. Surf&Call has two parts: a free plug-in for Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer Web browsers, for the user; and an adapted version of VocalTec’s Telephony Gateway 3.1 to handle the voice-over-the-Internet link from the Web site to the host company’s call center. This allows users to hold a voice conversation without disconnecting from the Internet. Elon Ganor, VocalTec’s chairman, said that the system uses encryption to ensure privacy on the Internet element of the voice call. People, he explained, trust call centers and are more willing to provide information over the phone, rather than across the Web. "Surf&Call now makes it practical and cost-effective for companies to integrate the Internet into their call centers for e-commerce, customer service and support and other applications," he said. VocalTec’s Web site is at http://www.vocaltec.com. (Contact: VocalTec HQ +972-9-952- 5858; VocalTec US 201-768-9400) TopSwedish Post Office Giving All Citizens E-Mail AddressesThe Swedish National Post Office has announced ambitious plans to give a personal e-mail address to every citizen in Sweden, even those as young as age 6. The e-mail address will be used as an address in its own right, as well as a virtual address which can be used to forward e-mail to the Internet address of the person’s choice. Either way, the plan is to charge people a modest amount for sending or receiving e-mail across the "@post" service, so as to counter the reduction in income in recent years from declining usage of postal mail services. People will be able to pay bills via their e-mail mailbox service, which will be accessible at Swedish post offices, as well as buy "microstamps" at the post office to prepay their e-mail, much the way postal letters are sent. Users would be able to "look up" someone’s e-mail address, much as they do for phone users. As children reach the age of six, they too, will be issued their own personal e-mail address. The plan is a major one, with the government planning to install Internet kiosks on street corners and at popular public places to allow citizens to collect and send their e-mail. The service will run on a series of Sun Microsystems Starfire servers using Netscape server software. According to Swedish National Post Office officials, the "@post" service has been developed to augment the existing postal service, and allow all citizens access to Internet mail, rather than just those with a computer and a modem.
|
