In olden days, when you had to make a call, you needed to have a pair of dedicated lines to talk to someone. and when that call is transcontinental, the length of the wire that you would be using would be a lot, and therefore calls cost a lot. And when the calls were trans atlantic or trans pacific, you needed transoceanic cables which had a limited number of wires that could carry your voice to the other end and you would find that the lines are always busy, and when you manage to get a line, you will realize that you cannot talk a lot as the costs would burn a big hole in your pocket.

Then came the digita age where telecommunications used satellites and things became quite simpler though the costs remained almost the same. And now with the internet on full swing, a new technology has been discovered called Voice over IP, where you use web servers to transmit voice.

Not many people would want to sit before a computer and talk into a mic thats attached to a headphone. Call centre employees have to do that, there is no other way. People who prefer to use a regular phone to call long distances at cheap rates can use a calling card. Eery city has its own calling card access numbers. For example, California has California calling card access numbers to which people who wish to use calling cards may call. For example, if someone wants to call me in India from the US, they just need to visit http://www.3longdistance.com/india_calling_cards.htm to make calls to me. When you make calls thru calling cards, you will find that there is a lot less delay in the voice than what you would expect when calling from a regular phone.