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By Monta Monaco Hernon, Contributing Editor

Cox Business Services has added videoconferencing to its repertoire of voice and Internet services through a relationship with Los Angeles-based RoseTel Systems.

"(Videoconferencing) becomes a layered service that allows us to demonstrate the advanced technology Cox brings," David Montierth, vice president and general manager of Cox Business Services in Orange County, says.

The deal: Cox will provide T1 lines for last-mile connection, as well as marketing and sales assistance, while RoseTel supplies the videoconferencing equipment and access to an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network. The two companies are working together in Orange County, San Diego and Santa Barbara, Calif.

Both say this is not your run-of-the-mill videoconferencing service. Montierth says Cox has been looking for service of this caliber for over four years."It's true lip-sync video quality," he says. "Motion is undetectable."

RoseTel uses a 30 frame-per-second compression technology and has ATM switches in 10 cities across the country, Gary Kaufman, RoseTel vice president of business development, says.

The service is dial-up. The call is answered by a voice asking the customer for their video ID number and that of the receiving party. When the videoconference is finished, the customer just hangs up.

Apart from quality, Kaufman says ease-of-use and low costs are what differentiate his service.

The equipment costs about $10,000. There is an 89 cents per minute usage fee assessed to the calling party. Of course, the customer also has to pay an undisclosed amount for the T1 line that RoseTel leases from Cox.

IDC analyst Chris Chute is not so sure any of this will lead to widespread adoption. "Does videoconferencing really fulfill a useful business function when you already have teleconferencing systems in place?" he asks.

Teleconferencing is available, familiar and offers safe anonymity, he says. He also notes that 89 cents per minute is a lot more expensive than 5 to 10 cents per minute for a voice call.

Going nationwide?

Still, Cox says it is using Orange County as the test bed. If the relationship with RoseTel proves successful, the contract could be expanded, perhaps even nationwide.

Currently, RoseTel also offers its service in several additional cities, including San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Fort Wayne, Ind., and Herndon, Va. on more of a piecemeal basis. In other words, the company leases T1 lines from several different service providers.

RoseTel is interested in going national with Cox. "We are receiving class marketing support, and the last mile connectivity is par excellence. We would like to see that across the country," Kaufman says.

More services

Customers already can use the dedicated T1 for services other than videoconferencing, Kaufman says. With the attachment of an ATM-to-Ethernet converter box, they can do data transport on a dial-up basis.

"If a company has offices in several locations, establishing a T1 between each would cost a fortune," Kaufman says. "We can offer the local loop to our network and 89 cents per minute data transport capabilities in addition to videoconferencing."

Other possibilities include the actual bundling of Cox's other services with the videoconferencing, and allowing the T1 to be used for connectivity to the Internet, as well.

RoseTel has an arrangement with Philadelphia-based V-Span, which allows for interoperability with any other videoconferencing platforms. But Kaufman says quality would decline under that scenario.

"The platform (would) resort to the least common denominator," Montierth adds.

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