Lucent Technologies Monday announced plans to roll out a single-chip solution expected to reduce the cost of Internet telephones by up to 30 percent.
The new solution replaces up to five chips currently used in the devices and integrates 13 electronic functions onto a single chip. Consumers can also design a customized single-chip phone.
“The Internet telephone market has been limited so far by prices that now hover in the $250 range per phone,” said Greg Sheppard, an analyst with Data-quest/GartnerGroup. “Lucent’s highly integrated system-on-a-chip solution addresses the key market stimulant of cost reduction that will help lower Internet telephone prices below the $150 range.”
Internet phones also reduce costs by converging voice and data on a single Ethernet wall outlet jack.
Lucent plans to initially offer a two-chip solution by the fourth quarter priced at less than $30 in quantities of 100,000.
“Packing more functions on a single semiconductor chip has been pivotal to decreasing costs and
growing the market for cellular phones,” said John Dickson, president of Lucent Technologies
Microelectronics Group. “Now, we are applying our system-on-a-chip expertise to help ignite the Internet telephone market.”
The Internet phone market is expected to grow by more than 250 percent over the next three years.