By Tim Knauss

Next week, Syracuse telecommunications company USA Datanet will start selling unlimited local and long-distance phone service for $24.95 a month to customers who have high-speed connections to the Internet.

Company officials hope the new service, which they will pitch as an alternative to traditional phone service, will make USA Datanet the primary voice communications company for many of its customers.

Until now, the company’s main services have been long-distance calling and dial-up Internet service.

«It’s a big step,» said John Turner, chief operating officer. «It takes us out of a single component . . . and really puts us into the position where we can be a customer’s complete voice carrier.»

The new service, called AllTalk, will become available Monday.

Earlier this year, USA Datanet was on the verge of offering local calling over traditional phone lines. But state and federal regulations shifted dramatically in the spring, raising rates that independent phone companies pay incumbents such as Verizon to lease access to phone lines.

The higher costs and the increasingly uncertain nature of that business forced USA Datanet to back away, Turner said.

Instead, USA Datanet will provide local phone service, along with long distance, over broadband Internet connections such as those provided by cable TV companies or on digital subscriber lines (DSL) from the phone company.

Offering a broadband-based service narrows the potential market, at least for the time being. Only about 38 percent of Americans have access to high-speed Internet at home, according estimates by NielsenNetRatings, a market research firm.

That number is growing, however. Broadband users now make up more than half of all Internet users, according to NielsenNetRatings.

The new local and long-distance service will use the same basic technology USA Datanet has used since 1999 to provide long distance. The technology, called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, breaks voice signals into digital packets and transmits them in much the way e-mail is transmitted.

USA Datanet has 480,000 customers for its long-distance services, Turner said.

VoIP technology also is becoming popular for local phone service, because the cost is substantially lower than traditional phone service. And VoIP usually comes with free digital features such as voice mail, caller ID, call logs and click-to-dial.

In its first four months, Time Warner Cable’s VoIP service, Digital Phone, grew from zero to 6,600 customers in Central New York, said Mary Cotter, president of the Syracuse division. The company adds about 150 customers per day, said Jeff Unaitis, speaking for Time Warner Cable.

Nationally, retail VoIP services are expected to grow from about $2.8 billion this year to $20.4 billion in 2009, according to Atlantic-ACM, a Boston consulting firm. Market research firm Jupiter Research predicts one in 10 homes will have VoIP service by 2009.

The only thing that may suppress growth of VoIP services would be a slowdown in the growth of broadband, said Judy Reed Smith, chief executive officer of Atlantic-ACM.

«I think USA Datanet is very wise to put this out,» Reed Smith said.

In addition to its residential service plan, USA Datanet sells a business-class VoIP service to commercial customers. The company also sells wholesale VoIP service to Internet companies that want to sell it to their customers.

The company’s residential price — $24.95 a month — is comparable to the $24.99 charged by Vonage, the industry leader based in New Jersey, which has more than 280,000 VoIP customers.

Time Warner’s service is more costly, starting at $39.95. Verizon offers a VoIP calling plan starting at $34.95. AT&T charges $29.99.

USA Datanet plans to mail an adapter to customers who sign up; they’ll install it themselves. One end plugs into the Internet connection, the other into the phone.

After installing the adapter, the customer calls USA Datanet and enters a pin code once. That’s all there is to the installation, Turner said.

USA Datanet’s AllTalk service represents a savings of $25 or more compared with similar calling plans from traditional telephone companies — a strong incentive for customers to use it as their primary voice service.

But some customers may be reluctant to drop tried-and-true traditional phone service until they gain more familiarity with VoIP and gauge its reliability, analyst Reed Smith said. She has VoIP service from AT&T, and likes it, but hasn’t dropped her regular phone line.

«I haven’t had my broadband (voice service) long enough to trust it,» she said.

DSL users who want to save money by using AllTalk instead of traditional phone service could face this obstacle: Verizon customers must buy traditional voice service from Verizon in order to get DSL.

That may soon change, however.

Cliff Lee, speaking for Verizon, said the company plans to offer a DSL-only service by the first of the year. At this point, even customers who buy Verizon’s VoIP service are stuck paying for traditional Verizon voice service, too, if their broadband connection is DSL.

Without rewiring household phone lines, which is not part of USA Datanet’s installation, a Datanet customer would have broadband VoIP service only at the phone or cordless base station plugged into the adapter. But a customer could easily extend the service throughout the house by buying an expandable cordless phone system with multiple handsets, Turner said.

Some customers may prefer traditional phones for emergencies. Unlike standard phone service, broadband voice service does not work during a power failure.

USA Datanet will provide 911 service. But a 911 call from an AllTalk customer would not display the address and call-back number of the caller, as traditional 911 calls do. Turner said USA Datanet is working to add that capability.