VoIP. Pronounced "voip," it
sounds as silly as it looks. But in the world of telecommunications,
it's becoming a serious business that could change the way you make a
phone call.
Rather than depending on telephone lines, VoIP - or
Voice over Internet Protocol - would allow you to use the Web. It
might pave the way for a new, more flexible wireless service. And
it's cheap: You could reach Nanjing for the price of calling next
door.
It's "probably the most significant paradigm shift in the
entire history of modern communications, since the invention of
the telephone," Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission, said earlier this year.
No matter
how that question shakes out, consumers will be the eventual winners,
says Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst. "The
drawbacks [to VoIP] are there today, [but] they're going to be going
away over the next year or two," he predicts. "Once we get rid of the
problems, what we're left with is a [phone] service that costs a lot
less."
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