Microsoft plans to build high-quality telephone features into the next version of its popular Windows software due for release this fall. If the colossus of Redmond, Wash., succeeds, the quality of voice communications on the Internet could improve greatly,

pointing the way to new levels of driver communications and customer service in trucking.
The New York Times reports that Windows users will be able to make phone calls through their computers over the Internet. That’s possible now, of course, with services such as Net2Phone, but Microsoft hopes to vastly increase the quality of current Internet voice communications.
Advanced telephone features will be part of Microsoft’s new release called Windows XP, named for the second and third letters in the word “experience.” Windows XP will mark Window’s first major visual makeover since Windows 95.
Initially XP will run on desktop and notebook PCs. The impact on trucking could come when XP is downsized for handheld devices that currently run Windows CE, Microsoft’s small-device operating system -- at least if the promised telephone features survive the downsizing.
By all reports, Microsoft is headed in that direction. Recently, for example, the company introduced software to enable streaming media, voice and animation, on handheld devices running Windows CE.
According to the Times, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says the implementation of Internet voice will make it possible to call a restaurant and have its menu pop up on a computer screen during the call.
In our industry, that menu could be an original bill of lading. Let’s say a consignee questions the C.O.D. on the freight bill presented by a driver. The driver could call dispatch and ask that the bill of lading be displayed on his handheld computer so the consignee can see for himself. The driver might even put the consignee in immediate voice contact with the shipper.
Similarly, the document could be a map for a driver or a schematic diagram for a mechanic on the road. In any case, the combination of voice and data communications could speed resolutions of many commonplace problems.
High-quality voice and data over the Internet will enable new services. Since the Internet is a worldwide entity, reliable Internet phone service will put a driver in immediate contact with virtually anyone, virtually anywhere. So a driver in Des Moines, Iowa, could speak with a shipper in Melbourne, Australia, to clear up a problem or perhaps just convey a proof-of-delivery signature.
That’s the obvious stuff. Cheap, reliable Internet phone service could enable services we haven’t thought of yet. Drivers could verify circumstances at a delivery site then receive security information, codes perhaps, to activate a product they have just delivered. Drivers could become installers or technicians with the help of remote experts and two-way visual and voice communication.
Yes, this kind of communication power will require more capacity than is currently available for most mobile devices, particularly those that connect directly to the Internet. But that capacity is well on its way as mobile communications companies continue to build out networks and provide ever faster wireless services.