Internet phone

An Internet Phone is a special voice over IP (VOIP) terminal that is designed to be used over the Public Internet.

Typically, it uses the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) or Media Gateway Control Protocol (MeGaCo).

Most regular voice over IP phones can be used as Internet phones with a little tweaking, but first-generation Internet Phones like the PingTel Expressa have been on the market since 2001.

Second-generation Internet Phones are expected to have features like:

• Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) support with extensions like:
  • Third Party Call Control
• Support for open codecs for voice encoding
• Support for IPv6 and NAT traversal

Companies like Cisco Systems, Inc and SocketIP, among others, are expected to release second-generation Internet Phone platforms in 2002.