A broadband phone is a phone that uses the Internet to make calls over Internet Protocol (IP). You can use your old telephone for calling, but your calls are routed through IP using broadband Internet access. This is done by using a device called a digital adapter, which connects the broadband modem with your telephone. This connection gives access to the broadband phone line. The primary function of the digital adapter is to unravel and rearrange the digital voice data that it obtains through the Internet and convert it into intelligible messages like the ones you receive through your ordinary non-digital telephone. The international call costs are much cheaper than those made over the conventional telephones or cell phones. The process of transmission of messages is quite efficient.

The transmission of voice over IP, or VoIP for short, has a bright future in making long distance calls. The main plus point is that the transmission of voice messages does not require any new platform or infrastructure. It uses the already existing Internet communication system, which is being used with great success. Great advances are being made in the improvement of the Internet communication systems as new technologies are being introduced. In view of this it can be safely assumed that the new broadband telephone technology, which rides piggyback on the Internet, will advance accordingly and provide improved and cheaper services to individual and corporate business users. Quite possibly the interconnecting digital adapter would altogether be eliminated. You may get digital telephones that can be plugged directly into the USB ports on PCs and can send and receive calls digitally.

It appears that as broadband grows in popularity, VoIP will revolutionize the telecommunication system as never before, even more than cell phones have done. As a result, most call charges should eventually become dirt-cheap.