Voice over I.P. stands for voice over internet protocol. What this means is that with a broad band or high speed connection to the internet, you can make telephone calls to any regular telephone number and pay only for the broadband connection to the internet as well as a flat rate fee for the telephone service company to handle the equipment. In short your local dial tone and long distance is handled so that you can make as many long distance and local calls within the 48 contiguous states or even to Canada for one flat rate. (Vonage ® does have non-flat rate plans that include all of their features but limit the number of minutes on the plan). One of the best companies offering this product is Vonage ® .

The technology behind incomming calls to your Vonage ® telephone is transparent to the person placing the call to you. Vonage ® either assigns you a telephone number (typically any area code is available) or takes your existing telephone number and ports it to your Vonage ® digital voice terminal. The person calling you should never know the difference.