USB phone technology

CommuniTech Inc., Elk Grove Village, Ill., offers a telephone that uses a computer's universal serial bus, or USB, port to make phone calls over the Internet.

The Clarisys i750 was designed for use in voice over Internet protocol networks, and works with Internet telephony support software from Avaya Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and others.

The company is pitching these phones, costing $89.95 each, to organizations with corporate virtual private networks as a way to give employees number portability, or the means to use the same phone number no matter their location.