David Pogue is one of the most highly respected tech journos out there. The NY Times reporter must be good because he was one of the few to have a personal demo of the iPhone and play with it - in the hallowed presence of Señor Steve Jobs. Building on his knowledge of 21st Century iPhone, he did a podcast on the pros and cons of internet phones. We learnt quite a bit, re-engineered some ideas and came up with the following.

Vonage

The biggest player in the real phones over the internet market is Vonage. They seem to have a solution for everyone. According to Pogue, it sounded like the Voip-masters could be for you if you are an international traveler looking to avoid horrendous hotel call charges. We would also add: a US homebird looking for a cheap way to track your traveling spouse while they stay in expensive hotels abroad; or you are a cheap skate technology fan who just has to have the latest phone gizmo.

Advantages Plug any old phone into your Vonage box and connect the box into a broadband modem and talk talk for $25 a month flat rate. The box is your number, which allows you to plug in anywhere within the stratosphere and make/receive calls within your monthly plan. That sounded OK. And $25 a month aint bad.

Disadvantages First big glitch is the degrading sound quality when you are talking and simultaneously downloading the huge porn files required to entertain you for the rest of the lonely night in the hotel room.

Second problem, maybe I don't want to be able to phone home from wherever I am in the world? On business, yes, but on holiday, maybe the privacy of incontactability (made up word) would be golden. Don't give annoying Aunt Nellies any more opportunities to stalk you and your family.

And last big glitch, there is an urban myth that Vonage make it very hard to break out of the phone contract even when you are entitled to leave. I don't think there is any point winning financially for a year only to spend all your precious spare time being slaughtered by customer service nazis for months thereafter.

Pisstakers opinion of internet phones

Cool is only necessary when in public. Therefore Vonage's attempt to combine cool normal phones with clunky internet is maybe a bit too cutting edge (buggy) for most of us.

Skype is brilliant if you are at home alone while you friends and family are a long or short distance away. Get over the fact that you look like a customer service agent with your fancy headphones and big ass computer in front of you. Just focus on the benefits of free PC to PC calls, or reasonable 2 cents a minute PC to any telephone chats.

So it isn't $25 a month, but you can always turn the cost to your advantage when you want an excuse to hang up from the most boring or delicate calls - plead poverty, "Oh my, I really have to go, this call is mounting up..." .