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AOL to Enter the VoIP Ring

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the everyone-else-was-doing-it dept.

FiveDollarYoBet writes "Looks like AOL is entering the VOIP racket. The service is free but it's really a Skype clone with a copper local number. They're also going to offer an unlimited version for $14.95 a month but you have to make the calls from your computer. It'll be interesting to see if it's more of a IM live chat or a true VoIP. The article also outlines their plans to take on MySpace in the near future."

3 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. I don't like POV summaries. by Avillia · · Score: 2, Informative

    "It's really a Skype clone on copper" really shouldn't have been included.

    Of course, then again, I'm a Wikipedia Editor.

    And, of course, I need more negative karma.

  2. Re:Already? by qortra · · Score: 4, Informative

    They've had user to user voice communication for quite a while now (long before Google for instance). Moreover, (AFAIK) they are the only IM service to allow PSTN termination; Skype was never really an IM service (it was primarily VOIP). The real contenders in this particular market (text IM services integrating voice communications) are MSN, Yahoo, AOL [AIM], and Google [Talk]. Of those, aren't they now the early bird?

  3. Re:Ya! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.sipgate.co.uk/ offers a free local number in the UK (and other countries i believe) when you sign up.

    http://www.gizmoproject.com/ has a nice softphone application which, from looking at the Mac OS X 2.0 test version, will soon allow you to set it up for 3rd party SIP services. There are other softphone apps out there, but Gizmo's is the nicest cross-platform one IMO.