Free Video Conferencing and Voice Over Internet Technologies

Today our phone and the Internet services are still separate animals, but things are changing. With each passing month, more providers are introducing businesses and the public to the possibility of transmitting both voice and images over the Internet, often for free.

Skype (www.skype.com) makes the simple claim that “you can talk to anyone, anywhere for free, forever.” Easy to download, Skype allows you to make free calls over the Internet to any other Skype user. Skype makes a profit by selling additional services, such as SkypeOut, an add-on feature allowing calls to ordinary phones anywhere in the world, at charges equivalent to local calling rates.

Sony, a more familiar name in electronics, has recently joined forces with GlowPoint to develop a free video conferencing technology called IVE (Instant Video Everywhere). Pronounced “ivy,” you can download the software at www.sonyive.com. Again, the service is free when calling other IVE users, but various useful add-on features like multi-party calling and video conference rooms come at a fee. It can be effective, personable, and brings you face to face with clients around the world.

While you wouldn’t want to replace the office phones with either system at present, these new technologies can be great for businessmen on the move, whose wireless laptops can finally become the video phones promised since the days of The Jetsons and Dick Tracy. All you need is broadband access and an inexpensive PC camera and microphone to enter this brave new world.