Softphone Software

This section of our technical library presents information and documentation relating to Internet Phone Software and Computer Telephony Integration software and products. Computer Telephony Integration CTI software is a rich set of phone software library routines that enable application programs to control your phone system. This comprehensive CTI software lets you increase employee productivity, enhance customer service and reduce costs by combining the capabilities of our PACER phone system with the custom functionality of your Windows, Unix or Web applications. Data collected by your phone ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) or IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems can be passed to your existing PC, Unix or Web applications through our phone software. The PACER predictive dialer can automatically call your customers and pass only connected calls to your agents. With our computer telephony software, your telephone and computer work together to provide cost-saving benefits.

Many People Are Switching From Land Lines To VOIP

Becky Thompson, Consumer Investigator, www.wpxi.com

PITTSBURGH -- People use computers to connect to the Internet and to friends and family through e-mail. But now, more people are using it to connect by telephone. It's called voice over internet protocol, or VOIP service.

One good reason many people are leaving behind their local telephone companies to connect online is the cost.

Channel 11's Becky Thompson pays $40 for local phone service with a land line company. Her neighbor pays $25 plus tax for 500 minutes of Internet phone service and can call anywhere in the country.

Mike Laughlin is one of a growing number of people with high-speed Internet service who now makes his calls over the Internet.

"I love it. You can't tell that it's different from a regular phone line. The quality is excellent. There are some hiccups, but other than that it's great," Laughlin said.

Those hiccups include having to register your address with 911, and some customers report hearing an echo or having a slight delay.

Something else to consider is if your high-speed Internet connection goes out, so does your phone.

But for many people who already have broadband, hooking up a box to their computer and phone and doing away with local and long-distance phone service -- and paying around $30 a month for both -- is too good a deal to pass up.

Other benefits include Internet phone service that allows you to dial anywhere in the U.S. any time of day and gives you features like call waiting and caller ID at no extra charge. And because subscribers have Internet phone lines, if they've got a laptop computer, they can take their phone number wherever they go.

Dave Farber is a telecommunications/public policy professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Farber said, "Nowadays you go to any hotel, you go to any coffee shop around the world and you can get access to broadband. For the average person who knows how to use a computer, this is no more complicated. It's a little telephone and you just key in the number and hit dial."

Farber has his phone connected to the Internet at home and when he logs on away from home he gets calls and makes calls using his Internet phone number.

Right now, cable companies -- traditional phone companies and new national companies like Vonage and Lingo -- are all offering Internet phone service.

Farber said, "You're going to see over a period of not that many years it being the only way you actually do telephony."

Thompson said, "You have the phone companies, the cable companies and these third party companies like Vonage and Lingo all competing for the same phone dollar."

Farber said, "And someone will win at that game depending on the set of services they offer."

Internet phone service competition has already brought the price of some of those packages down.

If you've got broadband Internet service and you want VOIP phone service, depending on the service you choose, you may have to make an initial payment of about $40 for the modem connection for your phone and if you want your service on more than one phone.

Within the next few months, Comcast and Armstrong, two of the largest cable companies in the area, will each be coming out with their own new Internet phone service for Pittsburgh customers.