Dan Gillmor's column this weekend is a stirring appreciation of Internet telephony:
Previously, I had two phone lines into my house, each costing almost $20 a month for the dial tone plus local calls. One of those lines was split to also handle digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband data access. In addition, I paid a long-distance carrier per-minute rates and a monthly connection charge.
Today I have one phone line, split into voice and DSL services. But I also have a new box attached to the network that links my phone to the Internet.
The system converts voice into Internet data packets — little packages of data that go to and fro on the Net — and vice versa. For $20 a month, the box gives me unlimited calls inside the United States and Canada. International calls are extra, but at laughably low rates such as 5 cents a minute to Japan and 12 cents a minute to South Africa.
