Did you ever think you'd be able to email a voicemail? How about holding an extended family reunion over the phone? From email to palm pilots to Blackberries, the Internet is one of today's most preferred and inexpensive modes of communication. Yet despite the speed that information travels today, it has lacked the emotion of our voices. Now, however, new technology is vastly improving the most basic method of communication: the phone call.

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It's called Voice Over the Internet Technology and it's being praised for revolutionizing the phone call the same way DVD's revolutionized movie watching: by providing higher levels of quality and control than ever before. Using a small device - about the size of an answering machine - Internet users with a broadband connection can make their calls from any phone over the net.

So far, AT&T seems to be leading the Voice Over the Internet Technology Pack. Beside what industry watchers expect will be dramatic savings off your monthly phone bill, consumer benefits include:

A "Do Not Disturb" option where calls are automatically routed to voicemail, only allowing select or emergency calls to ring through
A "Locate Me" feature that will find you on your home, wireless, car phone or any other device that receives calls, no matter which number your caller dialed
The ability to view, listen to and forward your voicemails via email
Call logs that allow you to track calls you have placed, received or even missed
Conference calling with up to nine people on a single connection

AT&T will start offering a Voice Over the Internet Technology in major cities across the United States in the first quarter of 2004.