I believe to use a modem as a phone you need one thats "voice" equipped/capable...I used to have one like that way back....it also had audio jacks on it for like a headset. Thats why you can hear them but they can't hear you, there's no working means of a microphone for your modem, at least thats what I'm thinking. Maybe there's software that makes a regular modem work that way, but I'd still think it'd have to be voice capable. Not too sure.