• Cnet, Thursday, November 3, 2005 12:41 PM

Cnet reports that voice over Internet providers have formed a new organization aimed at promoting the use of Internet telephony. Google, Earthlink, Sonus Networks, Pulver.com and eBay subsidiary Skype are all founding members of the Internet Voice Campaign. The group hopes to dispel myths and fears about VoIP service, such as privacy, call quality, and emergency support, which have kept people from adopting the service. VoIP involves the transfer of audio data over the Internet in the same way data is sent through e-mail and Web browsing. Each of these applications is based on the same infrastructure, the Internet Protoco--which nobody owns--so the cost of sending the data is far cheaper than via phone lines. In the past six months, major Internet companies like Yahoo!, America Online, Earthlink and Microsoft have begun offering VoIP, as have cable operators Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner.

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