Napsterising the telephone

Buying a phone service for the home is getting complicated these days. Where once your local phone company told you what you could have and how much it would cost, today's market offers a bewildering choice. The latest twist is the emergence of “voice over internet protocol” (VOIP), a way of converting phone conversations into packets of information that are sent over data networks using standard internet protocols. You need a broadband connection and an adaptor to use it. But once you've got those and a service provider, you're off—making telephone calls around the world that are effectively free, and capable of doing many more things besides.