November 15, 2005

By Mike Goldfein / Belo Capital Bureau

STORY
Except for the change from rotary to push button dialing, home phones have been pretty much the same for a century. But now, one phone company is trying to change the telephone entirely by adding a mini-computer and wireless router.

Here's Mike Goldfein:

If people are making phone calls over computers, why not computers built into phones? You have to wonder why it took a company this long to cook up one of these.

"We're giving them convenience to that Internet information that they would go quickly check." — Amy Mikolasy, Verizon

Verizon is now offering a home telephone / Internet device. The $199 Verizon One is a DSL modem, wireless router, cordless telephone and color touch screen with Internet connectivity.

"It gets rid of the regular traditional telephone and replaces it wit something that has the information at their fingertips." —Mikolasy

You can use it to check your weather forecast or look up phone numbers.

The device displays a limited number of very basic news stories and up-to-date sports scores. You can use it to find local movies and even get maps to the theater.

It lets you create virtual sticky notes rather than putting real ones all over the fridge, and it displays visual logs of missed calls and messages. It will also manage your address book.

The phone also lets you check horoscopes and stock quotes.

To use the phone, you must be a Verizon DSL subscriber.

On the Web for Belo Interactive, I'm Mike Goldfein.