Ntt is testing the service while in italy form today this is already
operational:
http://www.3gnewsroom.com/3g_news/jan_03/news_2930.shtml
3 Italy has just launched a new very interesting service:
From today you can request for free a special number on 3 website.
The number will enable a video-call forwarding to any PC connected
to the internet by ISDN, ADSL, CABLE or faster connection with
Windows 98, 98 SE, ME, 2000, XP and NetMeeting installed and
a WebCam. The service is not limited to 3 customers (You can
use the service with a friend in US or Brazil or in any other
nation if you like) but is available to anyone interested just
go to the following url and request a number:
Italian:
http://www.tre.it/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=SelfCare/
VideochiamataOnWeb/VideochiamataOnWeb
Babelfish Translation:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/
urltrurl?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tre.it%2Fservlet%2FContentServer%3Fpagenam
e%3DSelfCare%2FVideochiamataOnWeb%2FVideochiamataOnWeb&lp=it_en&tt=url
3 Italy website:
http://www.tre.it
Receiving a call is free while for the 3 caller has the same
cost of a national (Italian) mobile video-call 15 eurocents
per minute that are more ore less 15 usd cents per minute.
They are working on the possibility of making calls from
the PC to the phone. This feature will be available as
soon as the agreements between H3G Italy and the
ISPs will be finalized.
The technology must be a sort of transcodec technology
between MPEG4 and NetMeeting format that must be a
little bit CPU intensive to handle in realtime. I wonder
what kind of telco-side hardware is needed...
This is quiet an interesting service as you can have a
video-call over internet to any broadband connected
PCs... I thinking about how this is compatible with
Telcos operators revenue models for intercontinental
calls and videoconference... Is this that is stopping
NTT DoCoMo from introducing the service?
What do you think?
Giovanni
PS: if you want to try the service let me know...
Received on Fri May 9 03:38:10 2003