Opinion ID: 210343
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: BACKGROUND I Vonage's system

Text: Since 2002 Vonage has provided telephone service to its subscribers through Voice over IP (VoIP) technology. Vonage's system allows subscribers to place and receive telephone calls to and from parties that are Vonage subscribers and to and from parties that have traditional telephones without Vonage service. The principal difference between Vonage's service and traditional telephone service is that Vonage's system uses the internet to transmit telephone signals, rather than using the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN). When Vonage subscribers place calls to non-subscribers on the PSTN, Vonage's system transmits the signals through the internet, and then relays them to the PSTN. Vonage's system uses subscribers' existing internet connections to transmit telephone signals electronically. There are three ways for Vonage subscribers to connect to Vonage's system. First, subscribers can use a traditional telephone, which is connected using a standard telephone cord to a terminal adapter (the user agent), which then converts analog voice signals to digital signals and communicates with the Vonage system to send or receive telephone calls. Second, Vonage subscribers can also use Vonage telephones that have an integrated, built-in terminal adapter. Third, Vonage subscribers can install certain software on their computers that allows their computer to be used as a telephone. Under this option, the subscriber simply speaks into a microphone attached to the computer, and hears responses through the speakers.