VoIP for you and me? Using the Internet to make phone calls is a technology whose time has finally come — but don’t ditch your cell phone or land line just yet BY JESS KILBY

Remember the heady era of the late-1990s Internet, when anything seemed possible and pop-up ads were still a twinkle in the eye of the marketing industry? Plenty of ideas failed during those wide-open days, many because they never managed to bring the bling bling, but some because the infrastructure of the adolescent Internet was simply not ready to support a particular new technology or concept.

Internet telephony was one of those casualties. It had a few promising moments back in the day, with free services like Dialpad, before customers gave up on the crappy sound quality and embraced their shiny new cell phones.

But with the widespread adoption of broadband Internet service, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is back — and in a big way: Even traditional telcos admit that VoIP will eventually spell the end of the analog network we currently refer to as "land-line," known in technical circles as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The question is simply how long the transition will take.

Interestingly, our humble Portland has already become a significant historical footnote in the rise to power of VoIP. This past spring, Time Warner Cable of Maine rolled out one of the first residential VoIP services in the country, offering its new digitalphone package exclusively to Portland-area customers. The $40-per-month service, which lets users make unlimited free phone calls anywhere in the continental US from a normal land-line phone connected to a special modem, has proven so popular that it’s now offered from North Berwick all the way to Pownal, with service in the County soon to come.

But — proof of VoIP’s growing acceptance — Time Warner is hardly the only game in town for Internet telephony. While it’s the sole locally based company offering the service, the nature of VoIP makes it possible for customers to use a provider in an entirely different time zone if they desire.

Before you start shopping, though, know this: There are two radically different types of VoIP service currently available. The first, like Time Warner’s digitalphone, allows users to call any phone number in the world. The second only allows users to call other VoIP numbers, and often further restricts its users to dialing fellow subscribers of that particular service.

While the first option would seem vastly preferable, it does come with a price tag — typically $20 to $40 per month. The VoIP-only services, on the other hand, are usually free.

Why the disparity? Because the dial-anyone services have to access the traditional PSTN network if you dial somebody "off-line" (i.e., not another VoIP number), which means the service provider must pay taxes and access fees (tolls) for using those lines. That cost gets passed on to the customer in the form of a monthly flat fee or a per-minute usage fee, which is still vastly cheaper than traditional land-line rates.

VoIP-only services, on the other hand, stick strictly to the Internet, where no tolls apply. (Some services also use the Internet Protocol to transfer voice over a private network, but those are usually pay-to-play packages that include PSTN access.) Voice gets compressed into data packets on one end, is routed across the network to the other end, and is decompressed for the listener. The only equipment needed is either a headset with a microphone (or traditional computer speakers and microphone, if you don’t mind the speaker-phone effect) and software known as a softphone; or an actual "hardphone" — which looks much like a normal phone — that comes pre-installed with the necessary software.

Though VoIP providers claim the technology offers crystal-clear voice quality — surmounting the chief problem that plagued the first incarnation of Internet telephony — other fundamental issues remain to be resolved before the PSTN goes the way of the teletype machine.

First, unlike the PSTN, VoIP offers no independent power supply. This is a real concern, given the increasing incidence of widespread blackouts and the fact that many emergencies tend to happen when something has caused the power to go out.

Second, most VoIP services don’t yet offer 911 service. Time Warner’s digitalphone is a notable exception, as is the nationwide provider Vonage — which has a pricing plan similar to Time Warner’s.

Third, and less pressing, is the current lack of integration with cell-phone and Wi-Fi technology, meaning you can’t take it with you when you go. (Well, you can, but only if there’s another broadband connection to plug into when you reach your destination.) Motorola and NEC America have a hybrid phone in the works, that would use Wi-Fi to transmit VoIP when the user is indoors or within range of a Wi-Fi network, and a cellular network when Wi-Fi is unavailable. But that phone isn’t due to come out until the end of next year — around the same time you can expect to see a handful of similar offerings.

These limitations aside, VoIP offers a tantalizing future for telephony. Already some providers are taking advantage of what computing can do for telephoning — with features like Virtual Phone Numbers (piggyback a second number onto your line, with an area code of your choosing, and let people in that area code call you toll-free); Telemarketer Block (fools auto-dialers into hanging up before their call to you is completed); and sophisticated call-management options that let you send incoming calls from designated numbers to specified voice-mail messages or additional phone lines.

Though the regulatory future of VoIP is unclear, a federal judge has recently ruled against regulating the technology in the same manner as traditional phone service. So, for the time being, the future is wide-open. Again. Sometimes good things do come to those who wait.

VoIP resources: www.voip-info.org ; www.voxilla.com

Jess Kilby can be reached at jesskilby@yahoo.com