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It might sound like the expression of surprise destined to replace "D'Oh!" in the American vernacular, but VoIP (pronounced "voyp" or spelled out, e.g. V-O-I-P) is a relatively old technology that has recently come into its own, and may impact public safety from a couple of angles.
VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, and is the technology that allows a broadband internet connection to be used as a telephone line. VoIP has been used in small scale for years, in web cams, gamers' trash-talking chat sessions, and other venues where voice quality or reliability was less of a factor than the gee-whiz that it could be done at all. Because most people had relatively slow dial-up internet access from their homes and offices, the throughput of the necessary data was slow, and one had to have considerable patience to carry on a conversation where every third word was lost in the ether.
Two things have happened that have brought VoIP into the mainstream. One is that the technology has just gotten better and more reliable. The other is that broadband, always-on Internet connections over T-1 lines, DSL, and cable modems are now commonplace, so the data pipe is a lot bigger than it used to be. The upshot is that VoIP conversations are often indistinguishable from those conducted over standard phone lines.
VoIP works like this: you first need an ATA, or Analog Telephone Adapter. This is a box, about the size of three slices of Wonder Bread, that connects between your broadband feed and your computer in a pass-through manner. The ATA has a standard RJ-11 telephone plug that accepts the wire from whatever standard telephone set that you care to use. The ATA has a unique code burned into it, called a MAC (Media Access Control) address, that the VoIP provider uses to identify your connection and bill you for calls. Once...