services will work," Kung says. "Their quality may not be great, but their costs
can be much lower than traditional phone services. As long as the total value including quality, cost and convenience is reasonable, people will use it."
"Various technologies will coexist in the next several years," he adds.
Kinchla says that as phone users habits change, larger phone companies will also need to offer new kinds of plans.
"AT&T, WorldCom, companies like that--they're in trouble," Kinchla says. "It'll be interesting to see what they'll come up with."
While Kinchla stresses that plans for a voice-over IP system are still preliminary, she says she expects big changes for Harvard's phone system in the coming years.
"There are all kinds of strategies that need to be formed in the next 18 months," Kinchla says.
--Staff writer Juliet J. Chung can be reached at jchung@fas.harvard.edu.