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.