I am looking for some insight on this VOIP thing. Why is it, seems to
> me, getting hot now?... Is there anything different now that makes it more
> appealing than a decade ago?
Two things: Broadband penetration is much greater than it was before (it simply isn't doable on dial-up), and the adapter devices that let you use a real telephone to make and receive calls. Having to sit at my computer, and only being able to call others at their computers, and only if they were running specific software, narrowed the field greatly. Now I can pick up my regular phone and call my parents on their regular phone line. That's a HUGE difference. That didn't exist ten years ago.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Its even gotten better than that. Now from my computer and VOIP adapter box, I can 'plug into' (assuming properly wired) house wiring and use VOIP anywhere I would use a 'regular' phone. In my own instance, for example, I run the VOIP line into a small PBX type unit, and use it from any other PBX-style phone in my house by lifting a reciever, dialing '8' receiving VOIP dial tone and making my long distance calls. I do the same thing for local calls by dialing '9' to get the local (Prairie Stream Comm) line. Ten years ago I would have sat here at the computer, put on my headset, and puttered around starting up the voice-talk program I used on Yahoo Messenger. Not only that, but I can call inter-room in my house by dialing extensions 101 through 105, and have calls ring through to my wireless headset. Considerably more HUGE. People who visit me here at my house by and large have no idea how the system works; nor do they need to know other than telling them 'dial 9 to make a local call. PAT]