Futurists sometimes see Internet telephony as the death knell for traditional phone companies. But that’s not going to happen: those companies also own the last few miles of the old-fashioned copper and switches.

Which is why Verizon, AT&T, Quest and SBC have all announced they will begin to sell lower-priced (and lower quality) Internet telephone services next year, using VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol).

Service providers as well as portals like MSN, Yahoo and AOL may also offer telephone service as part of an integrated communications package.

Clever Web interfaces will let you convert your voicemail messages to email, or your emails to voice; you’ll be able to call-forward in a myriad of ways, or switch to video or hi-fi voice.