The bottom line is that the two participants are paying for a local phone call to their respective gateways, not a long distance call. The call is then completed when the Paris gateway places a regular call to the desired number in Paris. At this point, the two users can now have a regular phone conversation with the voice data transmitted over the Internet. Long distance carriers aren't the only ones keeping an eye on this technology. VON may also cut into access charge revenues that local telephone companies collect for terminating long distance calls.
Participants can engage in real-time phone conversations with other participants via the Internet.
This project was initially being experimented with in 11 cities and regions across the world including Seoul, Moscow, Toronto, Fort Worth, TX and Hong Kong. Since mid-June, however, this technology has been expanded to over 20 cities around the world. This project will deploy the VocalTec Telephony Gateway software running on PC's enabled with Dialogic telephony boards. Eventually, Free World Dialup II will allow conversations between people using products from multiple vendors. Whether Internet telephony will evolve into the mainstream and become a household term is uncertain.