A call from New York to India could cost more than a dollar a minute. Net2Phone let people make that call over the internet for a fraction of the price. It was spun out of IDT, the discount long distance carrier. When it filed to go public in the summer of 1999, internet telephony was a young idea, and Net2Phone was one of its best-known names.

IDT's Idea, Moved Online

Howard Jonas built IDT by selling cheap international calling. Net2Phone took the same idea to the internet, and it moved early. The bet was that voice would move onto data networks, where calls cost far less to carry. Net2Phone started with calls from a PC to a regular phone. Then it sold its service through partners, devices and businesses around the world.

AT&T In, IDT Back

Net2Phone priced at $15 a share in July 1999 and rose sharply in the months after. In 2000 AT&T took a large stake in the company. As internet calling became common and prices fell, Net2Phone struggled to make money from it. In 2006 IDT bought back the shares it did not already own. The service carried on under IDT for years after the deal.

Cover: Arrival and Departure of an American Steamship (Amerikakoku jokisha orai), Utagawa Yoshikazu. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a steamship crossing the sea (calls across the ocean).