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 Net2Phone Provides Yahoo! Phone Card with Voice-Activated Dialing
Capabilities
Net2Phone and Yahoo! together provide the next-generation of
IP-based communications services
Newark, NJ - February 20, 2002 - Net2Phone, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTOP),
the leading provider of Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services, today announced
it is providing Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) with the VoIP network
and voice-hosting infrastructure used to offer the newly launched
voice-activated dialing capabilities of the Yahoo!® Phone Card
(http://phonecard.yahoo.com) service.
Yahoo! Phone Card users may now place domestic telephone calls
to contacts in their Yahoo! Address Book (http://address.yahoo.com)
by simply calling 1-800-44-YAHOO and either saying the recipient's
name, e.g. "Call Joe's cell phone," or the recipient's
number, e.g. "Call 212-555-1212." Calls are routed directly
to the desired number via Net2Phone's managed IP network.
"We are thrilled to offer Yahoo! Phone Card consumers voice-activated
dialing services through our relationship with Net2Phone,"
said Madhu Yarlagadda, director, Yahoo! Everywhere. "As part
of our Yahoo! Everywhere voice and data strategy, we will continue
to introduce new ways for people to access Yahoo!."
The Yahoo! Phone Card leverages Net2Phone's VoIP services to offer
an inexpensive calling card with the value-added feature of voice-activated
dialing. Calls within the United States will be $0.10 per minute
with toll-free access, a savings of 35-50 percent compared to major
traditional calling cards that offer little to no enhanced functionality.
"Convergence is here, as is evidenced by the merging of Internet
information with the telephone," said Stephen Greenberg, CEO
of Net2Phone. "Voice over IP is the perfect platform for enhanced
services such as the voice-activated dialer, and we are excited
about being at the forefront of this industry with compelling products
and services."
The Yahoo! Phone Card allows consumers to use their Yahoo! Address
Book from any U.S. location. The network-based platform is "device
agnostic" and is therefore accessible from any landline or
wireless phone in the country.
Offering such applications using Net2Phone's VoIP network and infrastructure
significantly reduces expensive traditional telephone hardware requirements
while providing Net2Phone with the ability to drive enhanced minutes
over its network.
"Net2Phone is excited to be working with Yahoo! to provide
Yahoo! Phone Card consumers with multiple telephony products to
cater to their different needs," said Bryan Wiener, Senior
Vice President and General Manager of Net2Phone.
Yahoo! developed the voice-activated dialing application which
interfaces with Net2Phone's platform using Voice XML markup language.
Net2Phone uses voice browser technology supplied by HeyAnita.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
About Net2Phone
Founded in 1995, Net2Phone is a leading provider of voice services
over IP networks to consumers, businesses and carriers worldwide.
With millions of users around the world, Net2Phone enables toll-quality
calls between computers, telephones, and broadband devices utilizing
IP networks. Recognized as the first company to bridge the Internet
with the public switched telephone network, Net2Phone has routed
billions of minutes of traffic over its award-winning network. Traded
on the Nasdaq under the symbol NTOP, Net2Phone's strategic partners
and investors include Liberty Media Corporation, AT&T Corporation,
AOL Time Warner Inc., and IDT Corporation. For more information
about Net2Phone's products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
These forward- looking statements involve risks and uncertainties
and actual results could differ materially from those discussed
in the forward-looking statements. For this purpose, any statements
contained in this press release that are not statements of historical
fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Factors which
may affect the Company's results include, but are not limited to,
the Company's ability to expand its customer base, the Company's
ability to develop additional and leverage its existing distribution
channels for its products and solutions, dependence on strategic
and channel partners including their ability to distribute the Company's
products and meet or renew their financial commitments, the Company's
ability to address international markets, the effectiveness of the
Company's sales and marketing activities, the acceptance of the
Company's products in the marketplace, the timing and scope of deployments
of the Company's products by customers, fluctuations in customer
sales cycles, customers' ability to obtain additional funding, technical
difficulties with respect to the Company's products or products
in development, the need for ongoing product development in an environment
of rapid technological change, the emergence of new competitors
in the marketplace, the Company's ability to compete successfully
against established competitors with greater resources, the uncertainty
of future governmental regulation, the Company's ability to manage
growth, obtain patent protection, and obtain additional funds, general
economic conditions and other risks discussed in this Report and
in the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. All forward-looking statements and risk factors included
in this document are made as of the date hereof, based on information
available to the Company as of the date thereof, and the Company
assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or
risk factors.
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