Plus - if I really want to talk to somebody in the family I just load up Skype - I get Video and Voice from 7,000 miles away.
Vonage is around for convienience - $25 a month - unlimited stateside calls - can't beat that deal period. Use vonage instead of cell phone means I use less minutes.
I don't think landline connections to phone users that far away would be any higher quality than that of a VOIP user meeting minimal bandwidth requirements.
