Seen from my home country, I am currently pretty much on the opposite side of the earth. Still, the internet keeps me connected as if I was just around the corner.
It has never been so easy to stay in touch: I use Skype and SIP for telephone calls home, and SSH to talk to servers back home.
On the other hand, due to the large distance, I am subject to many internet routing problems. It is, for example, never really sure that I my packages are routed on a "good connection". Therefore, for example, today my voice on Skype sounded like crap because the packages visited Taiwan, Slovakia, Danmark and France before they finally reached their destinations in the northeastern and western parts of Germany.
Minutes later, I am routed over San Francisco, San Jose directly to Düsseldorf again.
Sometimes the internet is hard to understand... and sorry people for my voice sounding robot-like from time to time ;)
P.S.: Today I set up my internet connection to do quality of service, meaning VoIP traffic should be prioritized higher than anything else. Hope it helps :)