Try New Age Web Dialing
There's a new kid on the telecom block--courtesy of high-speed Internet connections.
Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) has been batted about in techie circles for many years. Over the past few years, it has been installed in many large companies to replace traditional telephone systems for internal calls. But within the past year or so, home users have begun to buy VOIP services, using their broadband Internet connections to make phone calls across the same pipes that carry the Web traffic. The start-up Vonage has packaged VOIP for the home user. Vonage's Digital Voice service costs $25 per month for unlimited local and long-distance calls in North America. The company boasts 450,000 customers, with an additional 10,000 coming onboard each week.
Vonage is no longer the only game in town, as telephone companies and cable companies have also started selling VOIP services to their residential customers. AT&T's CallVantage and Verizon's VoiceWing start at $30, and Time Warner Cable's Digital Phone starts at about $40.
Increasingly, VOIP service will also be available on wireless devices. Vonage, for example, will soon sell a wireless phone that uses Wi-Fi hot spots. -Mary Kathleen Flynn
This story appears in the March 7, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
advertisement
