Focus/Tech firms jockey for position to offer voice over Internet.

Byline: Megan Kamerick

It's rare to hear the phrase "killer app" in these post-technology boom days. But voice over Internet protocol, commonly known as VOIP, has the potential to claim that label right now.

VOIP is not new. But previous efforts to create a system that allows voice data to travel along the Internet have not lived up to expectations. The biggest complaint was unreliable performance.

But technology has improved and bandwidth has grown, say industry analysts, so interest in VOIP is growing. Some independent firms are marketing it heavily to consumers and small businesses as a flat rate service allowing unlimited communication -- similar to e-mail. Baby Bells and cable companies are looking seriously at entering the market as well.

VOIP is a technology that takes phone calls in analog form, digitizes them into packets of information, and sends them over networks -- either the Internet or private, managed networks.

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