Internet phones cost less, but other factor matter, too.

Byline: Peter J. Howe

Sep. 13--Rachel Parnes, who lives near Albany, N.Y., calls her mother in Natick almost daily, instead of weekly, because the price is so cheap. Kevin Clougherty of Chelmsford has friends in England on his speed-dial list. And Raj Sathyaraj of Hudson estimates he's saving $150 a month on calls to India and Australia since moving from AT&T to Vonage Internet phone service.

But for all the people whose calling habits -- and social lives -- are being transformed by cheap, fixed-price Net phone plans, many still aren't willing to plunge in.

"I just think there's more potential for outages than you'd have with the telephone," said Andrew Devlin, a self-employed consultant in West Roxbury with five kids who are nearing peak yakking age.

The Internet phone revolution is…