You could look it up: visitalk.com's directory service makes the PC connection

Voice over IP may be coming on strong in functionality and minutes of use, but who's making a White Pages-style directory of phone numbers for would-be voice-over-IP callers? visitalk.com said it has found a way to make dialing a friend for a PC-based IP call as easy as calling on the phone - and further, that the capacity to do this already exists on most computers.

The key, said visitalk.com President Michael O'Donnell, is the meeting software that comes with most browsers - NetMeeting with Window Internet Explorer, White Pine's CU SeeMe with Netscape, and all the other H.323-compliant software phones. "A free `phone' was given out to everyone who bought Windows, but none of them had a phone number or a central office to connect them, and there was no infrastructure to support PC-to-PC calling," he said.

Enter visitalk.com, which in April launched its permanent global directory service under which every Internet user can get a permanent communications number (PCN). That 12-digit number acts like a phone number. It's permanent, unlike an IP address; it doesn't resolve to a device or to a port on a PC but to the individual.

To use that number, the end user logs onto visitalk.com's Web site from any multimedia Internet-enabled computer and logs onto the directory service. The PCN server will detect the user's presence, update the directory with the user's current location and send calls to that address.

When a user types in a PCN, the browser "goes to our root server directory, puts the IP address into your communications client - your NetMeeting - for example, and goes point-to-point to the person you're calling," O'Donnell said.

The result is a directory that enables IP voice calls and full data conferencing, with video and voice chat capability. The visitalk.com service also provides many of the same features users want from a phone company: voice mail, conference calls, caller ID and private directories that allow a user to create folders outside the global directory. And users can download client software to their PCs, which avoids the necessity of logging onto the visitalk.com Web site.

Calls usually go over the Internet, but callers who are linked by a WAN call use the visitalk.com directory as an application service provider to place calls over their intranets. visitalk.com plans to launch a service aimed at enterprise customers this summer, O'Donnell said.

Last month, visitalk.com added the capability to make free PC-to-phone calls via the IP voice networks of Dialpad.com, deltathree.com and MediaRing.com. Users registering for visitalk.com are asked to specify which PC-to-phone service they choose, then when they click on a phone number rather than a PCN in the directory, that service automatically launches. visitalk.com gets added functionality; Dialpad, deltathree.com and MediaRing.com get revenue from the ads generated inside their phone clients.

visitalk.com also has signed an agreement to provide voice-over-IP services to ad-supported ISP freeinternet.com. "This is something that most end users would find an attractive addition to an ISP's site - and better us than somebody else," said Mark Grote, new product manager at freeinternet.com.

The PCN directory may become visitalk.com's most important asset, said analyst Mark Winther of IDC. "The PCN directory performs a function not available elsewhere on the Internet. Buddy lists are great, but you build them from people you already know. If visitalk.com is able to build this kind of universal directory function into a significant size, then it becomes a core functionality that players on the Web are going to want to be a part of. Other service providers are going to want to get included."