Answering Concerns Over Net Phone Calls

April 30 -- In this week's Cybershake, we take a look at the rocky rise of Internet telephony. Plus, we take note of the latest news surrounding online music downloads.

The Rocky Marriage of Net Phones

When it comes to telecommunications, one of the hottest developments ringing in consumers ears is Voice Over IP, or "Internet telephony." Also known as VoIP, it is a computer scheme that allows telephone-like voice calls over high-speed Internet hookups such as cable TV modems.

"The advantage of broadband telephony, or phone service over your [high-speed] Internet connection, is that you can make phone calls a lot cheaper that with your traditional land line phone," says Louis Holder with Vonage, a VoIP service.

VoIP service providers such as Vonage handle "voice calls" with special equipment (about $100) that connects home telephones to subscribers' home PCs. When calls are made on the phone, the gear converts callers' voices into digital data that then travels over the high-speed Internet to the phone at the other end of the conversation.

By using the Internet instead of the public phone switch network, VoIP subscribers can make local, toll and domestic long-distance calls though the Internet for a flat fee — about $30 per month.

And since VoIP isn't dependent on the phone network, subscribers can use their phone equipment anywhere there's a computer connected to the Internet. So a New York business traveler might take his VoIP phone setup to use with the broadband connection in his hotel in Richmond, Va.

But, the system isn't infallible — or without its critics. Some public safety officials are worried about Internet telephones because it may not mesh with current 911 systems.

For the traveling New York businessman, for example, dialing 911 from his VoIP phone in the hotel might connect him with New York's finest rather than Richmond's police department.

"Vonage came up with a solution around that," says Holder. "It requires a customer to enter their physical location into our system and we'll route you to the correct public safety answering point."