The USB phone is a computer telephone designed to send and receive calls through the Internet. The USB phone can place and receive calls to the regular phone numbers. The USB phone is a computer telephone designed to send and receive calls through the Internet. The USB phone can place and receive calls to the regular phone numbers. It can be wall mounted or placed at your desk. The USB phone connects directly to the USB port of your computer or laptop and allows you PC-to-PC phone calls through the internet, PC to regular phone calls, Static gateway calls and webcall calls. It requires a very small amount of power to run, usually only "sipping" a small amount from your USB.

A softphone on the other hand is software that works like a regular telephone and is operated through a personal computer and not through a dedicated line. Usually, a headset is used that is connected to the PC's sound card or the USB phone. Softphones are part of the VoIP environments. It could be a standard SIP/H323 or proprietary. The usual softphones include the - OpenWengo, Nexge, Express Talk, sipXphone, eyeBeam from CounterPath (formerly Xten), Sjphone and Adore Softphone. These phones are compatible with the Internet Telephony Service Providers or the ITSP.

As already mentioned, softphones can work on different environments. Some softphones use the Local Area Network (LAN) to dial trough the hardware phone via the VoIP, while others use USB phones done through a call center environment to enable calls and to receive calls.

Features of USB Phones

There are a number of USB phone manufacturers and some features enumerated may not apply and some features may be applied in combination.