KIOSK MAGAZINE, July 2001 Voice over Internet Protocol has gained some momentum in the kiosk market place and the timing couldn't be better. Prior, the industry had experienced problems in deploying strong working VoIP application. However, traditional payphone operators who have lost money to calling cards and cell phones will be happy to know that two kiosk companies have developed strong proprietary technology delivering clear real-time calls. A company who has developed a strong VoIP product is California-based Touch N Surf. Many times, within the fast paced realm of telecommunications, companies are bought, sold, or merged to provide more services. In the case of Touch N Surf, it was more of a progression that has led to a breakthrough in public access communications. In its commitment t to providing low cost, high quality public teecommunications, in 1993 Trans Com Network (TCN) was founded by Jacob Rashti to provide OSP services to LEC payphones. Over the next few years, the company expanded to offer local dial tone, long distance and data services to various enterprises. In 1998, the company saw a need for the development of effective voice over Internet technology, for public use, Thus, TCN began a research and development phase to develop a product that could route payphone calls over the Internet. TCN recognized a potential for fraud-free, low-cost domestic and International calls that would combat a general decrease in revenue caused by dial-around and other collection issues; and increased calling card and cellular phone usage. "The PSP's have been getting the short end of the stick, trying to collect on dial around for calls that utilize the payphones as a venue for international traffic" explained Jacob Rashti, "The major barrier to the market, however, was the quality of voice call that traditional Internet Telephony has to offer. This R & D project's main focus was to attain toll quality voice while keeping the hardware costs to a minimum." Trans Com Network invested a significant amount of capital and time in order to attain this quality of voice. While beginning the R & D phase for the Voice over Internet Protocol project, Millennium Telecom Plus was formed. Millennium Telecom Plus (MTP) was built to provide services to PSP's. MTP flourished, and a New York-based sales force was soon established. Robert Basulto, VP Sales Executive for MTP attributed the rapid success and growth of the company to a service oriented approach. "From our LEC experience, we knew the value of providing personalized customer support and brought this to MTP. Our emphasis on quality service, whenever needed, has been a key to maintaining our customers, and drawing new ones," Basulto commented. Trans Com Network's exploration into Voice Over Internet Technology resulted in the creation of Touch N Surf (TNS). TNS has formed strategic alliances with many large companies to develop a near toll quality VoIP call. "We knew that if we were going to have a viable unit in the market, it would have to perform to Industry Standard levels. Therefore, we have come up with a solution to the latency and packet loss problems that are inherent to the Internet." Said Shervin Rashti, CTO of Touch N Surf. Through the evolution of this R & D project, TNS realized that e-mail and Internet are two widely used technologies in today's society, so they integrated a VoIP public terminal to provide Internet access to come up with what is the Voice Enabled Public Access Workstation (VE-PAW). Another concern during development was to create a user interface that would be simple and efficient. To prevent intimidating potential users, the Touch N Surf was modeled after the Automatic Teller Machine. " We realized that people used ATM's everyday and are accustomed to the convenience and reliability of this type of interface," said Shervin. We asked Mr. Rashti to share with us his insight into the VoIP world. Q: Why did you decide to integrate VoIP technology into your kiosk? A: With exorbitant Interstate and International call charges from payphones, consumers have shifted to prepaid calling cards as their preferred choice for making these types of calls. Unfortunately, these cards are not all that they are made to be. They have pricey connection charges and minimum increments up to 5 minutes. This industry has taken its toll on payphone operators, as well as consumers; therefore, by enabling people to pick up a handset and to make a crystal clear call on a Touch N Surf Voice Enabled Kiosk utilizing our Process Patent Pending formula for Voice over IP, (for cheaper than a prepaid calling card or a cell phone), then it's a win-win situation. We are now offering free domestic calls to the end users with paid Internet usage time. This means that a user can pop in a dollar, get 4 or 10 minutes of Internet usage, and talk on the phone at the same time, for free. We are seeing a terrific response from this offer. Consumers become more educated on what their options are for making calls and communicating for less. Q: Did you develop your own proprietary VoIP technology, or outsource? A: We did develop our own VoIP technology. It is a patent pending process that we have come up with. Essentially, the Internet is optimized to carry data. This data is usually not very time sensitive. (ie. If you send an email and it takes 5 seconds, that’s acceptable. If you are trying to bring up a website and it takes a couple of seconds to load the whole page, that’s acceptable. However, if you are in a real-time conversation and are trying to make sense of what the other person is trying to say, you must minimize that latency to 300ms. For it make sense). What happens in Voice over IP is that analog voice is digitized and packetized into packets that are similar to that of data on the Internet. The Internet is indifferent to the levels of service that each application requires, leading up to unacceptable levels of service. Thus, through much R & D, Touch N Surf has come up with a solution that eradicates the problems that plague traditional Voice over Internet Protocol. Q: In general, why should any given kiosk have VoIP and what is the value? A: You are adding value to your kiosk, By enabling users to communicate to any telephone in the world on the kiosk, the usage, in some cases triples. This is not only because it is much cheaper that any other method of public communications, but also because they can do what is known as "Multi-tasking". This means that, for instance, a businessman can vie an email or a website (such as stocks) and make a call to discuss the content that they are viewing without necessitating a separate phone line, cell phone, pay phone, wireless device, etc. We are finding that many business travelers carry their laptops on business trips for the sole purpose of checking their business email account on a kiosk as well as make a free call, simultaneously, carrying laptops will no longer be a necessary evil. Q: How does VoIP provide enhanced services while reducing costs? A: Currently, traditional legacy lines use antiquated technology that is inefficient and costly. Each phone conversation occupies a dedicated circuit between the two points throughout the duration of the conversation. However, the capacity of that circuit is much greater that what one conversation will occupy. This technology is known as circuit switched technology. However, VoIP utilizes packet switched technology, which can route multiple phone conversations over the same circuits. Because the voice is converted into packets, different packets can travel different routes to get to their destination. This is where the obstacle comes into play. Getting those packets to their destination, and to get them ther in a timely manner are two of the major factors that have always kept VoIP from becoming common place. Because we have developed a solution that overcomes the major barriers to making VoIP a success, we can benefit from the reduced costs. By utilizing the same media to transmit multiple calls simultaneously, there is a cost break, making the business case extremely strong in support of implementing a VoIP infrastructure.