What's not to love about VoIP? New technologies are pushing the limits of mobility.

If you haven't heard the buzz about how some people have made free international phone calls from a Lufthansa flight using their laptops, put your seat back into an upright position and prepare for the future in voice and video communications. "Skyping"--named after Skype, one of the better known Internet-based phone services--is getting the same play as texting and instant messaging (IM), the latest habits of successful, technologically savvy communicators.

Skype and its cohorts make free PC-to-PC phone calls a breeze. These calls, known in tech-speak as VoIP (pronounced vo-eep, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol), aren't exactly a new phenomenon. Companies were squeezing voice "packets" through analog phone lines as far back as the late 1990s. Net2Phone was one of those companies, and Arizona-based Inter-Tel was another. But until recently, the voice quality of these services was poor, largely because most people were using dial-up Internet connections. The steep drop in the cost of broadband service has radically changed that; in the U.S., for example, 53 percent of home Internet users have switched to broadband.

101 uses

There are two markets for VoIP: The home market is served by companies such as Skype and Vonage, while the enterprise market--one that goes after the telephony and data needs of large corporations--is dominated by Cisco, Avaya and Nortel. Indeed, the home market gets most of the buzz because of everyone's love affair with free international calls and IP phones. But don't ignore the enterprise solutions rolling out, because the tipping point of communications is a fancy-schmancy IP phone.

"We are at the point where we can take advantage of the mature VoIP technology," says Manoj Fernando [no relation to the author], co-founder and executive vice president of business development at LiteScape Technologies Inc., a VoIP company. "We develop the applications that run on top of these IP phones, and deliver the other 101 uses of a phone you never thought possible." What exactly are these uses? Imagine getting your phone to interact with desktop calendars and directories on your PC, or delivering a PowerPoint presentation to a phone (see "Dialing In to the Future," left).

The best way to think about VoIP is that it does not simply duplicate an existing phone service; instead, it opens up newer communication options. Take mobility. A mobile worker could plug the phone in to the company network whether she is in Boston or Bangladesh, and the system would recognize her profile and route calls to her. How so? The IP phone, assigned an IP address just like computers on a network, is a personal appliance, not a communal one. As Avaya describes it, in the old world of telephony, we always called a location; today we can make a phone call to a device. Don't want to carry your phone with you? No problem. The alternative, called a soft phone, allows a VoIP subscriber to pull up a virtual phone on a laptop, punch in the numbers and make the same call using the computer's speakers and microphone.

Mobility, security, commerce

IP phones introduce many more features than were possible through the old circuit-switched phone networks. Vendors such as Inter-Tel provide services that can track abandoned phone calls and deliver advanced features such as biometric speech verification. There is much talk of video phone calls in the next generation of IP phones, but for now, voice and data applications are on a rocket ship about to blast off, with those in the education, finance, health and government sectors heading for the launch pad. Take the current interest in "security notification." Governments can deploy IP phones to issue evacuation orders or security alerts using a network of phones that can suddenly become an inexpensive broadcast solution.

In Japan, there is a move to add voice recognition to the mix. A marketing director could simply say the words "sales team" into his IP phone and immediately launch a conference call to his foot soldiers around the world.

You can also think of IP phones as a kiosk, Fernando says. Phones are being fitted with card readers that could authenticate employees who have access to a network. The instruments could also be programmed to swipe credit cards, making the phone do double duty for e-commerce. The real estate on the LCD screen could display information and rich-media content that takes phones to a different dimension. Interactive voice response features could allow customers to talk to the phone and view customized listings of homes, medical information or flight information in malls, airports or libraries.

Where might all this lead us? Consider a few developments. EBay has just acquired Skype. Google has launched an IM service called GoogleTalk that includes free VoIP calls. Microsoft recently acquired a VoIP company and is expected to build voice features into its new operating system. British Airways is replacing plain old telephones at Heathrow Airport with VoIP models.

Soon IP phones and soft phones will be difficult to avoid--a bit like that irritating guy in the window seat who's making free international calls at 30,000 feet.

Dialing in to the future

Consider what your future phone could do for you: An IP phone has a large display panel with good resolution. It has the guts of a computer, so it can receive digital files from any PC via e-mail. You as the senior communicator could preprogram a conference notification to your team from a PC using Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes. On the assigned day, the message would be e-mailed automatically to each invitee's IP phone. Individuals would simply click on a soft key (on the touch-sensitive LCD screen) to launch the phone into the conference--which features your slide presentation. You could even speak over the slides. All this on a phone!

VoIP: Are you plugged in?

Want to know more about VoIP and how it's already being used in business today? Check out these resources.

* Technology primer: There is actually a "For Dummies" book on the subject: VoIP for Dummies, by Timothy V. Kelly (Wiley Publishers, 2005).

* VoIP to go: Now you can load a VoIP application on a USB flash drive and use it on any PC that has a broadband connection. Check it out at www.gizmoproject.com.

* USB phones: Skype offers attractive USB phones, such as the CyberPhone K and Simply Phone, that you can plug in to your PC and use as you would a regular telephone (www.skype.com/store /accessories).

Angelo Fernando is a freelance writer based in Tempe, Arizona, covering business, marketing, media and technology. ++++++++