``What is the Future of Internet Telephone Calling? When Will the Bloodbath End?'' asks CoolCall.com founder.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 14, 2001

Internet telephone calling has been identified as a leading disruptive technology that has a promising and potentially profitable future. However, the leading public US companies in Internet telephone calling have seen their stocks drop 80% or more over the past year while they've accumulated combined operating losses of $366 million. There's a reason for this: the brave new world of next-generation telecommunications requires a fundamentally different business model. In today's global telecom marketplace, traditional cents-per-minute revenue models are rapidly being rendered obsolete.

At the Voice over Net Europe 2001 Conference in Stockholm, Sweden on June 14, CoolCall.com founder and CEO Burt Chojnowski will analyze the hard lessons being learned by US Internet phone service providers such as Net2Phone, iBasis and Delta Three. Chojnowski will also propose some solutions to the dilemmas faced by the major players in the telecommunications and Internet telephone (IP Telephony) industries.

"These companies are seeing their market capitalizations and stock prices take big hits as their current business models continue to produce losses," Chojnowski said. "The sustainable business model going forward in telecom and IP Telephony is not going to be built around offering cheaper minutes than the next guy. Telephone minutes have become so cheap worldwide that there's nothing left to make a profit on. The winning players are going to focus on delivering higher-margin, value-added services along with low-cost, high-quality Internet phone calling." As an example, Chojnowski will discuss the forthcoming ability of IP Telephony providers to offer Unified Communications in emerging markets. "Strategies like the marriage of Internet Telephony with Unified Communications will be the key to achieving profitability quickly and ensuring profitability over the long term."

Chojnowski believes that the US is not going to lead the next wave of Internet expansion. Growth of the Internet is going to be led by emerging markets in India, Pakistan, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe where people have never had Internet access and where they won't be able or willing to use PCs and ISPs to access their email and surf the Web.

"Telephones and other handheld devices will lead the next great wave of the Internet's growth. Consider the fact that email traffic accounts for 500 times more Internet usage than Web surfing. Networks that offer email, voicemail and fax retrieval from one mailbox, and that make it all accessible by telephone, cell phone or PDA, are going to be the winning players in the next-generation telecom marketplace."

Chojnowski's VON Europe presentation identifies emerging IP Telephony technologies such as voice over DSL, and new IP Telephony business opportunities for traditional telecom providers, wireless phone companies and ISPs.

CoolCall.com is described within the IP Telephony industry as "a one-of-a-kind international IP Telephony cooperative" that is engineered to provide voice, fax, data, broadband video and e-commerce services on a high-speed international backbone. CoolCall.com has been funded by Samsung America and is one of the first companies outside of Silicon Valley to be funded by Garage.com and Silicon Valley's Band of Angels.

The company is based in Fairfield, Iowa's "Sili-Corn" Valley, the birthplace of a number of successful Internet and telecommunications companies.