Because many of these services are providing free, if not heavily discounted, long-distance service for users with the right type of equipment and Internet connections. This means a minimum of a sound card, a pair of headset earphones with built-in microphones, and an Internet connection of 56kbps. You will need a faster Internet connection because some of the services rely on graphic-intensive Web-based applications.

Internet telephone, also known as "web talk" services according to IDC analyst Mark Winther, were actually developed to enhance services like instant messaging and text-based chat rooms. The technology that enabled such services to be created is known as telephony, to the ability to convert sound into transmittable electrical signals that are sent and received by computers. The idea was that these services would help make the Internet both more interesting and more useful.

The development of these services, however, coincided with global restructuring within and among telecommunications companies around the world, namely the overabundance of long-distance calling and abundance of telephone services that have led to increasingly low prices and fluidity of subscribers among various plans and companies. Because these services operate over both private Internet networks and traditional telephone infrastructure, communications can be integrated among a number of devices.

There are two reasons these services will not replace your traditional telephone or wireless cellular phone right away. First, if your computer uses the Apple Macintosh operating system, is connected to a home network, or operates behind a firewall, you will have a tough time using many of these services. Second, the sound quality for these services at this stage, in general, is unpredictable, if not awful. The best quality achieved at this date is comparable to a cell phone in use in good weather. In short, you do get what you pay for.

Moreover, since these services are deployed with the assumption that they will function as enhancements to existing phone services, at least in the short run, they help to give users the means to control and coordinate their communications activities from a wide range of sources and devices-- Internet, telephone, personal digital assistants. As such, they are not replacements for the telephone-- at least not yet.

What Internet telephone services lack in current quality, however, is outweighed by the potential options they can provide to nonprofits to begin planning for next-generation services that are already in limited use. Rather than considering all-in-one communications service packages from proprietary one-company networks and plans, nonprofits will be able to take advantage of integrated communications that can be enhanced by modular and scalable phone tools that will be easier to deploy and grow as needed. Additionally, nonprofits will most likely see a move away from long-distance predicated on per-minute pricing, in favor of free long-distance calls that are housed under fee-based value-added services, such a private communications portal, e-commerce transactions, and integrated web talk features and affiliate programs.

Interested nonprofits should take advantage of our short list of links to some of the largest Internet telephone offerings to see if these services are right. Keep in mind that not all of these services are free and that it is important to review their terms of service before registering with any of them, not just in terms of price, but also the type of primary and additional services that each offers.

Deltathree, for example, allows free computer-to-computer and computer-to-phone calling only in the United States and Canada, while Dialpad offers the same service for free only within and between the United States and Korea. MediaRing, meanwhile, offers free computer-to-computer calls on a global basis, and free computer-to-phone calls only within and among the United States, Canada, and selected parts of China. Net2Phone and PhoneFree feature free global computer-to-computer calls, but PhoneFree offers free computer-to-phone calls in the United States, while Net2Phone does not.

Deltathree, Dialpad, MediaRing, and PhoneFree each require users to submit relatively detailed profile information in order to access the free software application required for their services, while Net2Phone uses a web screen to accomplish the same task after users register information for the service. Deltathree, does allow users to also access a web screen in addition to the software download. MediaRing and Net2Phone, however, also require users to prepay for Internet calling time by registering a valid credit card.

Deltathree provides discounted computer-to-phone service outside of the U.S., phone cards, instant messaging, Internet fax, and e-commerce services. MediaRing allows users to add voice text to e-mail messages. Net2Phone adds video functionality and traditional phone access to e-mail. PhoneFree provides video conferencing, voice and video mail, online directory, and file exchange and storage services.

Maybe they won't help you totally avoid charges, or make telephone calls more fun or exciting, but they do open up a potentially sizable range of options for next generation phone services to a wider base of users.

Resources

November 2000 IDC analysis, Mark Winther