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You love the Net, sure you do, but are you ready to hand over your family or home office telephone service to the wilds of the World Wide Web? For a rapidly growing number of consumers, the answer is a resounding “Sure, why not?”

Voice over Internet Protocol, otherwise known as VoIP, is the practice of routing voice conversations as data packets over the Internet. Just a few short years ago, VoIP was strictly the province of Internerds who delighted in sticking it to the big telephone companies by calling all over the world for free, even if they had to put up with echo, static, and dropped calls to do so.

But in the last 18 months, VoIP’s reliability and quality have improved significantly, even as familiar communications giants like Verizon, AT&T, and Yahoo have jumped into the market alongside early players like Skype and Vonage. That combination is inspiring a growing number of ordinary users to give VoIP a try. In fact, market researchers Frost & Sullivan predict VoIP will experience a phenomenal growth spurt in the next few years, jumping from 1.5 million VoIP lines in 2004 to 18 million by 2010.

 Consumers are making the switch primarily because of cost. Computer-to-computer VoIP services like Skype and IM-based plans from Internet heavyweights like Yahoo, AOL, MSN, and Google are completely free. Broadband-based services, like those from Vonage, Verizon, and AT&T, which enable calls to and from wireless and regular analog telephones in addition to PCs, typically cost between $20 and $40 a month for unlimited local, national, and select international calling.

Home-office and residential consumers are likely to be offered VoIP as part of a service bundle from their broadband provider that includes Internet, television, and telephone for one price on one bill, according to analysts from In-Stat, a market research firm. That’s what pushed Beth and Pete Stackpole of Newbury, MA, to give VoIP a try -- the new digital voice service was part of a package deal from Comcast, says Beth, and so far the family has experienced no difficulties with their Internet phone service and noticed no difference in the quality of their calls.

On the lower end of the market, there are still some kinks to work out. Market watchers predict quality and reliability will continue to improve, but say the old caveat “you get what you pay for” still applies in the VoIP marketplace, at least for the time being. Nicole Wolohan of Ithaca, NY, has to agree with that assessment. She first heard about Skype, which allows free calling from PC-to-PC, when her teenaged son started using the service so he and his friends could all talk with one another while playing online video games. Skype works perfectly well in that case, Wolohan says, but when she tried to use the service to make PC-to-telephone calls, the connection kept dropping.

Like any new technology, VoIP isn't without accompanying security concerns either. Specifically, if you're considering making the switch, make sure your “end points” -- PCs or “soft phones” (handsets that connect to your computer) -- are behind a firewall and are running the latest software and patches from your VoIP vendor, advises Jonathan Zar, secretary and outreach chair of VOIPSA, the VOIP Security Alliance (www.voipsa.org). And security extends to the physical world as well, Zar adds. Because a power failure or lost connection to the Internet will take out your phone service as well, Zar recommends VoIP customers maintain a backup to the analog telephone network or mobile cellular service. Keep that in mind: If you lose your connection, you lose your phone.

Once your VoIP system is secure, you’ll be free to turn your attention to the next big thing in Internet Telephony: wireless mobile phones -- known as WiFi phones -- that can make and receive calls via WiFi hotspots. Also on the horizon are combination phones that handle both VoIP calls via WiFi and wireless calls over the established cellular network.

As one wag observed, the new technology promises to turn public hot spots into “one giant phone booth.” Let the chatter begin.