Calls of the Wild; The phone business is in turmoil--cellular is growing, and now every line into your home can be used to carry calls. A user's guide to help you tame the telecom beasts.(Industry Overview)

Publisher correction: May 05, 2004

In the April 26 story "Calls of the Wild," about Internet telephones, we wrote that iconnect.com was a private company. In fact, iconnect should have appeared as iConnectHere.com, which is the consumer division of Deltathree, Inc. (DDDC), a public company. NEWSWEEK regrets the error. ___________________________

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn, With Temma Ehrenfeld

Peeved about your phone bills? Timid about new technologies? Me too. Rates and services constantly change. All the big carriers are increasing their fees. Cheaper but less reliable wireless can drive you nuts. We have created a world of telecom monsters, and can't seem to gain control. And now something new: phone calls over the Internet, using a technology known as VoIP (for "voice over Internet Protocol"). It will open the door to new competitors, unhinge the industry and even save us some money. So it's time to wrestle with the phone beasts again. There's a lot of new stuff since the last time you looked.

Sorting out the choices can make you long for the days of simple black rotary phones. But you don't want to go there. Old Ma Bell, a smug, regulated…