After over a day where no-one called me I finally persuaded two friends of me to give Skype, the “internet telephony program” a try.
Installed, made a connection, started talking and nearly fell out of my chair.
I use a Dell Inspiron 8200 Laptop with the built in mic and speakers. And the voice connection was absolutely clear, brilliant. No echo, no lag, no funny compression artifacts. The first call was with someone with a headset / mic and it was just gorgeous - better than ISDN. ...