INTEL LICENSES SOFTWARE TO ITXC TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF PC-TO-PHONE INTERNET TELEPHONY.

Intel Corp. announced it is licensing its Internet telephony software technology to ITXC, a leading service provider of Internet telephony. Intel's technology improves the quality of voice communication when making a call from a PC to a phone, achieving nearly the same quality as when making a phone-to-phone call. This is part of Intel's ongoing effort to develop technologies to improve consumer experiences over the Internet.

The licensing agreement allows ITXC to incorporate Intel's Internet telephony software technology into its ITXC webtalkNOW! Service. ITXC offers the service to Web portal and Internet telephony device customers, who can easily integrate it into their existing Web pages and other applications. These companies can then offer Web-to-phone capabilities right from a user's Web browser.

"As Intel's Internet telephony technology is integrated into ITXC's products, consumers and businesses can experience high quality, interoperable IP telephony services," says Abel Weinrib, director of communications and Internet architecture at the Intel Architecture Labs.

ITXC is combining the capabilities of the Intel telephony software with BestValue Routing, ITXC's patent-pending voice traffic management technology, to deliver carrier-grade voice quality over the Internet to Web-based callers.

Intel's Internet telephony software technology improves voice quality by implementing features such as acoustic echo cancellation decreased audio breakup, noise reduction and bandwidth conservation. These improvements result in clear, crisp voice communications when making calls from a PC to a phone. The software also integrates audio and configuration "wizards" designed to make it easier to integrate the software into Web pages.

One of the barriers that have slowed wider deployment of Internet telephony has been a lack of interoperability across networks. Both Intel and ITXC are members of the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC), an industry group comprised of more than 150 companies working on establishing open interoperability industry specifications. The Intel Internet telephony software is compliant with iNOW!, an Internet telephony interoperability standard developed by IMTC.