Risky business, Evslin turns his sights to Internet telephony

It's not the first time a senior executive has left AT&T for a start-up venture, but in Tom Evslin's case, there's a difference: He's leaving his position as vice president of AT&T WorldNet to take his chances with a brand-new company in the Internet telephony business.

While the business case for Internet telephony has yet to be made, Evslin is still in a relatively safe position. ITXC Corp., which will provide interexchange services to Internet telephony service providers, is being backed by AT&T and VocalTec. The company will rent capacity on the WorldNet backbone from AT&T, among others, and will use VocalTec's gateway products.

AT&T decided to back the venture because officials believe there is a significant opportunity to use Internet telephony to provide enhanced communications services, despite widespread fear that cheaper voice-over-Internet services could cut into long-distance revenues, Evslin said.

"The only way a company can compete and prosper is to offer the best services to its customers," he said, adding that he expects Internet telephony to expand the pie for enhanced services rather than take away revenue from carriers.

And as for Evslin's own decision to move into a new business? "I love starting things," he said, calling his work with AT&T WorldNet over the last year "great fun.

But Evslin pointed out that the ISP environment in which WorldNet was started last year is very different from today's market for Internet telephony, a factor which prompted him to launch ITXC as a start-up rather than using the AT&T name.

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