IBM hopes to make Internet telephony more attractive. When personal computers (PCs) convert speech into data packets, two people can talk over the Internet. But there is no way of sending a ringing tone. The company's researchers in New York, USA, hope to alleviate this problem by adding voicemail. When someone attempts an Internet call, they get a voicemail message from that person's service-provider. They can then leave a message on the server and the party will get an alert message when they log on. This makes international voice message possible without footing the bill for international calls ( New Scientist , Vol 157, No 2115).
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