[blu] broadband phones?

[Chris Marget]

i've got service from broadvoice.

i chose them because they seem really friendly to the do-it-yourself
community.  my ATA (analog telephone adapter) is a sipura 2000,
purchased from voxilla.

$20/month for unlimited calling across the US and to several other
countries.  yay!

also, for a couple of dollars more,  i have incoming phone numbers in my
far-away family's local calling area, so it's a local call for them to
reach me.

my ATA is hooked to a comcast cable modem.  initial configuration (which
i had to do, as opposed to the locked-but-configured hardware from
vonage) was a piece of cake.  it has always sounded fine, and *never*
filed to give a dial tone.

as others have mentioned, there are software versions of VOIP.  the
point of these is to save the cost of the ATA hardware, using your PC's
microphone and speaker, rather than a plain old telephone.

/chris