SYDNEY, Aug 12: Telecommunications companies will have to adopt their own Internet telephony services or risk losing a major business to start-up service providers, said Internet telephony advocate Jeff Pulver.

Pulver said the price of telephone switch technology was now at a level that most corporations could afford to set up their own internal exchanges and by-pass the main telephone network, therefore, making cheaper calls for companies.

"What we are seeing are companies around the world becoming their own telephone companies," Pulver told Reuters in a interview during a visit to Australia to run seminars at Internet World 1997 conference in Sydney.

"These devices will become as popular as print servers and fax servers in company's offices in another two or three years," said Pulver, who advises companies on how to set up their own telephone networks using Internet technology.

US-based Lucent Technologies recently released its Internet Telephony Server (ITS), which can route voice and fax calls from the public switched telephone network to the Internet or a company's intranet, using standard phone or fax equipment.

"What this whole thing means is that in a short period of time we will have a revolution in the telecoms industry and we have a lot more additional players," Pulver said.

However, the Internet telephony service will be a poorer quality service, but at a dramatically cheaper prices, up to 80 per cent lower than the fixed line service offered by telecom companies, said the New York-based Pulver.

Pulver said the New York and Jerusalem-based Delta Three was a prime example of how any group could become a telecom company. Delta Three launched its first service to Israel from Russia that targeted Israel's immigrant community a year ago. It now has services in the United States, Europe, South America and Asia, mainly focused on expatriate or immigrant groups.

However, Pulver said some telecom companies had already started Internet telephony services. In January, Telecom Corp of New Zealand started its Internet telephony service.

Last month, Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG began a pilot programme to allow customers to place international calls over the Internet from regular telephones.

A recent survey forecast the total Internet telephony market reached A$19.8 million in calendar 1996, and grow to A$1.89 billion by the end of 2001."Over the next 25 years I believe phone services will become a commodity item and if Telstra, AT&T and BT don't get their act right they will be out of business, because all the technologies are driving telephony to become a commodity, that almost anyone could set up and be a telecom."

Pulver said telecom companies should look to set up new divisions to offer Internet telephone services, as it would be a distinctly different business to the regular phone service.

"They should recognise the fact that some sections of the market is going to stop using traditional phone services," said Pulver, who also heads the 150-company strong Voice on The Net coalition that offers telephony services over the Internet.

Pulver said Internet telephony is putting pressure on prices charged by telecom firms for regular telephone services.

"That is what the phone companies fear the most. People looking under their skirt and saying 'hey your not pricing this correctly,' they don't want anyone to challenge them on that," said Pulver.

He gives advice on how to set up telephony services over the Internet on his Web page http://pulver.com.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.