The Internet is Calling

Transform your computer into a phone with VoIP.

BY LEE GIMPEL | ILLUSTRATION BY TRAY BUTLER

Learn the basics about turning your computer into a phone with VoIP.

Back in the dot-com boom, a few online phone services emerged that allowed users to make free or low-cost calls using a computer. Although most calls were clear, they were frequently dropped. Today, with the benefits of new technology, internet calling offered by phone companies and cable TV giants is chipping away at the dominance of regular phone service. TeleGeography forecasts that 17% of US households will have internet phone lines this year compared to just 1% in 2004.

WHAT IS VoIP? Internet or digital calling is referred to as VoIP, which stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol (or simply Voice Over IP). Instead of connecting your calls via a traditional network (through a jack), VoIP connects your phone to the internet. Much like you type an email, hit send and transmit it across the internet where it emerges as a readable message, VoIP converts your voice to digital data that is encoded for transmission and reemerges as speech. While VoIP turns your computer into a phone, you can also talk on a regular phone when it is connected to a special router.

ADVANTAGES Mohammad Ilyas, coeditor of VoIP Handbook: Applications, Technologies, Reliability, and Security, says a big advantage is cost. And because it's all digital, it's easy to control preferences as if it were any other application. Many VoIP services offer advanced calling options-including virtual numbers, where someone in Los Angeles could have a local number in London-as well as a way to access and change options through the web.

DISADVANTAGES VoIP relies on an internet connection; if it goes down, so, too, does your phone service. That can be a big deal if your phone is what connects you to customers; in August 2007, the popular VoIP provider, Skype, went down for two days, affecting 220 million users (today, it has nearly 340 million users).

Ilyas says that although technology has improved in the past few years, call quality can still suffer during busy internet times. Business-class VoIP does get a direct fiber-optic internet connection (residential plans do not), and providers will guarantee reliability.

COSTS Vonage offers a $25 monthly plan, which includes unlimited local and long distance calling. Skype allows free calls to other Skype users; calling regular phones costs upwards of $.02/minute, and having a real phone number to receive calls costs $60/year. XO Communications offers a business-class package well suited for a 20-person office for $650/month that includes voice and data transmission as well as web hosting.