International Internet Telephony has been evolving since its introduction in 1996. In 1996, the typical player wassomeone like Delta Three, who used the Internet as a backbone network, used agreements with local ISPs to ?gray-market?terminate traffic in a country, such as Columbia or Israel, and then used a VocalTec type gateway tointerconnect the local call with an E&M or R2 type signaling. Voice quality was bad, call set up time interminable, andcall completions were limited at best to 10-15%. The only selling point was price.Today, four years later, there is a clear segmentation of models. At one extreme is the extension of the Delta Threeapproach still being provided by delta Three as well as IBasis and ITXC. This is the ?be everywhere but be shallow?approach. This approach uses the Internet as a backbone and then deals with local players as did Delta Three at thebeginning. The other approach is one which integrates IP services. It is an approach characterized by ?be selective butown the IP market? approach. To some degree Net2Phone exemplifies that strategy as does Zephyr, as does many ofthe would be players such as KPM Qwest, Colt, and Level3.
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