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If you decided to put Internet telephony on hold until voice quality improves, you may want to give Voice over IP (VoIP) a second chance with the U.S. Robotics 56K Internet Call Modem ($100 street) with Net2Phone software.

In our testing, the Call Modem's voice quality was much better than products we've tested previously. Even though you'll still notice a slight transmission delay, the chance to make free domestic and Canadian voice calls is a great deal.

The Call Modem can also be used for discounted calls to international phones, voice e-mail, online call notification, PC-to-PC voice calls (free worldwide), IP faxing, and voice chat via ICQ. But the big deal, however, is using the modem for making free calls in the U.S. and Canada. You can use your PC's audio card speakers and microphone for voice calls, but one feature we really liked was support for a conventional handset that plugs into the modem.

We tested with a standard dial-up connection to EarthLink using an inexpensive hand- set plugged into the dial-up modem. We found the transmission delay noticeable with the dial-up phone modem connection, but incoming voice quality was indistinquishable from standard phone-line voice quality, and outgoing voice quality was about on a par with good analog cellular-phone connection quality.

If cutting cost is an objective, now may be the time to consider Internet telephony seriously. The Call Modem's one-time cost will quickly pay for itself in saved tolls, with only a slight degradation in voice quality.

As for the transmission delay, we were able to pace ourselves to the delay fairly easily, and once those we called realized the reason for the delay, they quickly adapted to it. The U.S. Robotics 56K Internet Call Modem can be a great cost-saver–more than offsetting the minor aggravation of making calls from your PC.

Copyright ?? 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.