Their use in Internet telephony often results in voice echoes and transmission delays. But more advances have brought better sound. Obstacles remain Some companies, like Net2phone, have begun offering customized handsets, computer phones essentially, that improve reception even more. But it has a long way to go. It's getting competitive with some of the quality you get on cell phones.
More improvements are in the works.
For example, some companies have begun offering specialized phones loaded with software that skip the PC step and tap directly into the Internet via the phone line to call another phone. And voice and other multimedia capabilities becoming available through Internet instant messaging could provide a whole range of convenient and free communication features. Pavlik said he has used the new version of one popular IM program to call many online friends that use the same software. Reuters contributed to this report. Pages will open in a new browser window External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.