Talk is Cheap with Internet Telephony

With the deregulation of the telecommunications industry, the price of phone calls has plummeted in recent years. But even at reduced rates, monthly charges can add up for chatty folks, especially if you make international calls. But a new technology, Internet telephony, also known as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) virtually eliminates long distances charges, allowing you to call almost anywhere in the world for the price of a local call. If you have broadband Internet access, you can't beat the price--it's practically free.

With Internet telephony or VoIP, you place a voice call either from your computer to another person's computer or to their landline or mobile phone. When calling from computer-to-computer, both parties must have compatible telephony software and be online at the same time. At the moment, there are no universal standards, so be sure to determine which software the person you want to call uses. Calling from computer-to-telephone is simpler, because only you need the software. You can download telephony software and it's free. In either case, you'll also need some hardware: a sound card (most computers already have one installed), a microphone and speakers (or a headset).

Computer-to-computer calls typically require advance planning, as both parties have to be online. Once your software is configured, you enter the number of the computer you want to call, click the Dial button and wait for someone to answer. Computer-to-phone calling works much the same way, except that you're calling a regular telephone number. Sounds simple, doesn't it? So what's the catch? To answer that question, you have to understand a bit about the technology.

When you place a call over the Public Switched Telephone Network, a dedicated circuit opens between you and the person you call. The line remains open until you hang up. With VoIP, your voice is digitized, then broken into small data packets. The packets travel to their final destination over the Internet, where they are reassembled into a "voice." This is the same process used for sending e-mail. With e-mail, however, it doesn't really matter in what order or when the data packets arrive. Once they all arrive, you can read the message. Since voice communication happens in real time, if some of the data packets are delayed or lost en route, the voice quality degrades.

The quality of your call depends on the speed of your Internet connection, that of the party you call, and the traffic on the Net. If the data packets are delayed during transmission, it causes latency, a fancy word for the lag time between when you speak and when the other party hears your voice. Although it can be annoying, you can learn to compensate for latency. A greater problem is voice distortion. When packets are lost during transmission, telephony software automatically "fills in the blanks" by examining the adjacent packets. The more the software has to compensate for lost packets, the greater the distortion.

If you are willing to accept less than perfect voice quality, Internet calls will save you a bundle of money, especially for international calls. While this may not be the optimum way to make important business calls, friends and family are usually more tolerant of odd noises on the other end of the line.