The ability to make free long-distance telephone calls over the Internet isn't new, but U.S. Robotics puts all the necessary pieces together with its 56K Internet Call Modem package. Setup is similar to that of other internal modems. By connecting a regular phone to the modem's phone port, however, you can use it to make free calls instead of a computer microphone connected to the sound card. You'll want to read the manual carefully. Calls are placed using the included Net2Phone software while you're online.
Calls are free to any phone in the United States or Canada.
International calls elsewhere incur a small fee. Even though call reliability is heavily dependent on the stability of your Windows 95 or 98 operating system and your Internet connection, I found the voice quality more than adequate with only a slight time delay. The Internet Call Modem also lets those with one phone line make calls and surf at the same time. On the other hand, I couldn't place calls consistently. Internet telephony saves money, but I'll keep my long-distance service for important calls.