Class Objectives

1. Discuss accounting and tax issues of  telecom companies providing and using ecommerce services.

2. Consider the impact on the telephone industry of Internet telephony and marketing phone services on web sites.  How does this impact the revenue and cost structures of the industry.
 
 

Background Preparation

1.  Read some recent news articles about telecom industry developments.  Examples of online sources are:

• The Economist, July 8, 2000, "Waves of the Future" at http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/8-7-00/index_sb2212.html
• International Telecommunications Union at http://www.itu.int/
• Telecommunications Industry Association at http://www.tiaonline.org/
• Telecom Information Resources on the Internet, links by Jeffrey MacKie-Mason at http://china.si.umich.edu/telecom/telecom-info.html
• The Information Economy, links by Hal Varian at http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/resources/infoecon/
• Yahoo! Telephony at http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Shopping_and_Services/Communication_and_Information_Management/Telephony/
• Paging Network Inc. and its bankruptcy at http://biz.yahoo.com/n/p/page.html

2.  Read about Internet telephony and marketing of telecom services from online sources such as:

• Telecommunications comparison shoppers at http://www.willyancey.com/retail.htm#telecom-compare
• Analysys at http://www.analysys.com/
• Internet Telephony at http://www.internettelephony.com/
• MIT Internet & Telecoms Convergence Consortium at http://itel.mit.edu/
• Net2phone at http://www.net2phone.com/
• PhoneFree at http://www.phonefree.com/
• Speak4free at http://www.speak4free.com/
• TMCNet Internet Telephony at http://www.tmcnet.com/it/
• PC World, "Net Phones: Dialing Without Dollars", at pcworld.com/features/article.asp?aid=18623

Student Presentations

Chip Miller - revenue recognition
Jeff Kreibel - revenue recognition
Steve McCrann - sales tax nexus