CONVERGENCE WATCH POPware outsources Net services >BY Chris Bucholtz, West Coast Bureau Chief

In the latest example of the Internet mirroring the telephony world, Internet service providers will soon be able to offer corporate customers value-added voice, fax and file management services via a technology intended to create a new application layer in the Internet's infrastructure.

This new technology, dubbed POPware by creator NetCentric Corp., enables Internet points of presence (POPs) to become platforms for extended network service, allowing ISPs to outsource customer communications and information management to the Internet.

POPs are the locations at which the telephone network and the Internet meet. They usually contain a mixture of routers, modems, incoming and outgoing digital fiber for network traffic and analog connections for dial-up access. What they don't contain is intelligence, said Sean O'Sullivan, chief executive officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based NetCentric.

"Basically, [POPs are] a place you call that routes you to other locations," he said. "More services can be delivered via POPs, and that will allow ISPs to set themselves apart through the services they offer." POPware software is embedded in the POPs, providing a framework to interface between users on LANs, the Internet and traditional channels.

Most transactions will be initiated by the user from a computer and transmitted to the POP in an encrypted form, where the POPware framework will decide to either carry out the transaction across the Internet or route the job to another POP that can handle it more economically.

The POPware network can also move messages from POP to POP to balance network loads. The POPware framework then uses the public switched network to connect with the final destination for the transaction, regardless of what device it is intended for-voice, fax, data, video or another network.

While an application tool kit is available, NetCentric is announcing FaxStorm this week , an application that will let corporate customers move their faxes from long-distance phone lines to the Internet. "If you're a company," said O'Sullivan, "not only does using FaxStorm through your ISP save you money by allowing you to bypass long-distance service, but by outsourcing this service to the Internet, you can eliminate the need for desktop modems, dedicated phone lines and fax servers."

FaxStorm uses the POPware architecture to route traffic to its destination and then uses fax emulation software to "fool" the receiving fax machine into thinking it's talking to a second fax machine.

"It's an enormously cost-efficient way of doing faxing," said Portia Isaacson, a principal at Dream IT, a Boulder, Colo.-based consulting firm. "It shifts the opportunity to provide value-added services to the ISPs."

Ultimately, POPware architecture and the Internet will be used to outsource other communications needs, including voice, O'Sullivan said.

Isaacson agreed. "Eventually, a lot more could shift, and it would be a big bonus to smaller businesses. In my example, I have an ISDN line and an Internet connection for a Web server in my office, for which I pay a flat monthly rate. If I can make voice calls and conduct conferences over the Internet, it doesn't matter if I talk to someone in Taiwan for three hours. The flat fee remains the same. There's economic muscle in that."

While Internet enthusiasts envision a utopian IP-based network replacing traditional switched networks, other observers aren't so sure. "Computers go down fairly frequently, but how often does your phone go down?" said Maury Kaufmann, president of the Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Kaufmann Group. "There are issues like customer service and network reliability that the ISPs still have to take care of. But the outsourcing of corporate communications functions is a pretty compelling service to offer, and it could put them in competition with carriers as the service matures."