System and method for comfort noise production

A method and system are provided for producing comfort noise during conversational pauses in the course of a telephone call over an IP network, the IP network including a transmitting computer for transmitting a voice signal generated by a telephone and a receiving computer for receiving the voice signal. The method comprises detecting a conversational pause at the transmitting computer; stopping the transmission of voice data packets during the pause; and transmitting a message to the receiving computer directing the receiving computer to produce comfort noise. In some embodiments of the invention, the message may take the form of a single packet of data.