AT&T Adds Telephony Tools to Excite, Lycos Online Services

AT&T today debuted the first of its AT&T Inter@ctive Communications telephony services that integrate voice network and Internet technologies on leading portals Excite Inc. and Lycos Inc., as well as on AT&T's WorldNet service.

Today's announcement introduces the first in a series of jointly distributed applications that will be offered under AT&T's agreements with Lycos and Excite, as reported in May on InternetNews.com. The partnerships were created to deliver co-branded AT&T WorldNet-powered online services for users of the Lycos and Excite search and navigation guides.

AT&T said Inter@ctive services rolled out today include:

• AT&T Chat 'N Talk, an offering that allows users to call others in chat rooms anonymously
• AT&T Click2Dial Conferencing, a service that enables users to set-up and control a conference call with up to 7 people, and employ a Web-based interface to enter telephone numbers and use functions to mute, add, or delete callers
• and AT&T Click2Dial Directories, a tool that provides auto-dial to users listed in AT&T's Anywho directory.

To deploy these services, AT&T said users need a phone line separate from the one used for their Internet connections, and a 486 system or higher PC that runs Windows 95 with at least 16 megabytes of RAM, Internet Explorer 3.02 or above, or Netscape Navigator 3.0 or above.

Pricing for Click2Dial Conferencing and Click2Dial Directories is $0.15 cents per minute for each person called with the U.S., Hawaii and Alaska. Chat 'N Talk's initial set-up fee is $0.50, with a $0.25 cents per minute fee.