When Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology finally comes fully into play, do you figure that it will be an added bonus given to you by your ISP or will it just put your service provider in a position to compete with the established long-distance telephone companies? New technology is just dandy but it's frustrating to know that, however excited you get about new stuff, you never fully know the corporate game plans of the companies that put the next big thing on the market. Before the bills arrive, however, it's fun to get excited (and dare I say even passionate) about potential uses for new toys. If you have a cable line for your TV and a modem to hook your computer up to it, making phone calls on the cheap sounds great. Toshiba is helping to put such voice tech into place with its first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) enabled broadband cable modem. The PCX3000 is Toshiba's first PacketCable-based VoIP cable modem and includes dual ports for telephone connectivity, in addition to USB and Ethernet interfaces for data connections. Toshiba says its PCX3000 VoIP cable modem is currently part of several trials in partnership with multiple system operators in various markets to test telephony services for cable network subscribers. Toshiba plans to make the PCX3000 cable modems available in early 2002 to cable system operators, and at a later date to various national retail chains. The PCX3000 cable modem meets Network Calling Signaling (NCS) standards and supports DOCSIS 1.1 specifications, which let cable operators offer services like high-speed internet, tiered bandwidth options, and multimedia applications like video on demand and interactive games to cable customers.