Voice over IP

Voice services build out from network core
Most consumers do not reach for their computer mouse when they want to make a telephone call, and even if they do, the resulting conversation is often disturbed by peculiar speech delays. That may give the impression that voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology still has far to go before it represents a challenge to the age-old telephone system. But the contributors to this week's In Focus section paint a very different picture of where Internet and local-network voice technologies are headed.