Seems our parent company is going to be installing a "next-generation tandem soft switch" in Dallas as its first step in providing nationwide Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP. You may have already begun to see tv ads about this technology from Cisco, who is the leader in VOIP hardware. Theoretically, because VOIP is faster and less expensive than conventional circuit-switched transmission, your long-distance phone bill should go down as well. VOIP works just like the various Internet applications you use daily, in that the packet-switching technology breaks down voice and data messages into many separate "packets" that can share the same line. Plans call for these next-gen soft switches to be deployed in Chicago and Pittsburgh next, with VZ using all three to process VOIP calls.