CTI Computer Telephony Integration

This section of our technical library presents information and documentation relating to Computer Telephony and Computer Telephony Integration software and products. Computer Telephony Integration CTI software is a rich set of phone software library routines that enable application programs to control your phone system. This comprehensive CTI software lets you increase employee productivity, enhance customer service and reduce costs by combining the capabilities of our PACER phone system with the custom functionality of your Windows, Unix or Web applications. Data collected by your phone ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) or IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems can be passed to your existing PC, Unix or Web applications through our phone software. The PACER predictive dialer can automatically call your customers and pass only connected calls to your agents. With our computer telephony software, your telephone and computer work together to provide cost-saving benefits.

The Asahi Shimbun

As many as 250,000 Japanese are estimated to be making free phone calls around the world over the Internet thanks, indirectly, to a controversial file-swapping technology.

Skype software is an Internet protocol phone version of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, whose use in the Kazaa file-sharing software has been the target of copyright infringement lawsuits in the United States and elsewhere.

Skype turns a personal computer into a virtually free telephone, enabling calls to anybody anywhere in the world as long as the software is installed in their computers and they have an Internet connection. The only costs aside from a microphone and headset are the Internet access fees.

The software has been translated into Japanese and is available for free download at the Skype Technologies S.A. Web site, although user registration is required.

The software was developed by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the same Swedes who developed Kazaa.

Using the P2P technology, the Kazaa networking program allows Internet users with the same program on their computers to directly access files from one another's hard drives.

Kazaa has infuriated the music industry, which alleges the software promotes illegal distribution of copyrighted music.

But Skype is unlikely to face similar opposition, says Takato Natsui, a Meiji University professor specializing in legal informatics.

``If the P2P technology is used for telephony, there is no concern for copyright infringement,'' said Natsui. ``They're very unlikely to get sued by the music industry.''

As for the security of phone calls, calls using Skype are encrypted and are free from interception concerns, Zennstrom claims.

Zennstrom and his collaborators in August 2003 set up Skype Technologies in Luxembourg, and have since won over as many as 10 million users, mainly in the United States and Europe, in its first year.

Skype users can call conventional phones, but Skype Technologies charges fees for such calls, the company's main source of income.

In an interview over a Skype-placed call, Zennstrom said he does not expect the software to completely replace conventional phones, but warned telephone companies would not be able to survive unless they adopt viable measures to keep up with changing times.(IHT/Asahi: September 14,2004) (09/14)