There’s been much fuss about Skype free software enabling users to make phone calls via the net: But in the USA, traditional phone companies are jumping on the bandwagon of voice-over-IP technology too:

– Verizon is gradually substituting traditional swapping equipment with VoIP switches on its local and long-distance networks.
– AT&T introduced an Internet phone service, CallVantage in New Jersey and Texas, and intends to expand to 100 metropolitan areas by the end of this year. Customers plug their phones and their PC into special adaptors that connect in turn to their DSL or cable modems; to make calls, they just have to pick up the phone.
– Other important VoIP providers include: Deltathree, Dialpad Communications, 8×8, Voiceglo, and Vonage.

Many uncertainties still block the way to widespread Internet calls: should they be subject to the same fees and taxes as traditional phone service or regarded as data services (untaxed so far)?; how can someone calling 911 over the Internet be located (a federal requirement for other kinds of phones) ? and how will the FBI wiretap Internet calls?

From Technology Review,