February 19, 2004

Your notebook computer is now a phone

My spin: One of the benefits of "voice over the Internet Protocol" technologies (VOIP) is that one can access a "telephone" wherever a data connection can be established. If you are in a hotel room, conference center or your client's office and are provided access to a network, all you have to do is plug in your VOIP enabled phone and when someone calls you the phone will ring, right where it's at.

Taking this a step further, ZDnet is reporting that manufacturers will start embedding VOIP technology into notebook computers and later on enabled notebook computers to perform as cell phones.

Manufacturers are going to start selling notebooks with integrated Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) this year and later come out with notebooks with built-in cell phone capabilities, Anand Chandrasekher, vice president and general manager of the Intel Mobile Platforms Group, said in an interview. The phone module will also let users review incoming e-mail and calendar information while the notebook remains in sleep state. Thematically, these additional communications features are termed Extended Mobile Access (EMA).

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