Avaya Hooks Up With Internet; VoIP Leads Comeback; Company No. 2 to Cisco in sales of the gear used to make calls via the Net.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: MIKE ANGELL

Don Petersen sells a product he says has great promise, though he admits it can be annoying.

Petersen, chief executive of phone network gear maker Avaya Inc., is pushing new software that forwards phone calls anywhere. The person you're calling isn't at his desk? The software can ring his cell phone, home phone and pager, and send e-mail alerting him to the call.

Not that everyone would want such a service all the time.

"When I get home, I don't want to be bothered," Petersen said, "so I turn the cell phone off."

This new feature is one of many new products made by Avaya as it establishes itself as a force in emerging voice-over Internet protocol phone networks. VoIP gear takes speech and breaks it into data to be transmitted over the Internet.

This system means phone calls can travel anywhere data can, at times at lower cost. Petersen says VoIP's progress is inevitable, and his company's push into that field is one reason its stock is up above 15 from less than 2 a year ago.