Cisco Systems Wants You To Talk On The Phone, Check Weather Using Your Computer

Business, government and the public may soon benefit from what is insideCisco's Avvid Express. The company's leadership in Internet technology will soon allow telephone, cable and other companies to provide new services.

"We have products today where the consumer can bring it to the home, and we use a software application that sits on their PC or their laptop at home, and they can connect in," says David Sawyer of Cisco Systems.

Much of this new technology is actually available now, and it uses the Internet to converge video, voice and data. The technology also allows users to use their laptop as a phone or use their phone to check the weather in a certain location.

The phone is really a computer with processing power, memory and a small screen. High-quality television over the Internet, including conference calling between families, is just around the corner with increased bandwidth.

Business and government will begin using high-capacity Internet service first, but your home may soon follow.