Yahoo announces Internet phone: undercuts Skype, telcos on voice call rates

[mandy]

Yahoo Inc. said on Wednesday the company plans to allow computer users to make and receive calls from phones at rates that undercut eBay-owned rival Skype and are significantly below traditional phone companies.

Yahoo said a new version of its Yahoo Messenger text, voice and video communications software to be introduced in the next few days will include "Phone Out," with low per-minute charges for calls from computers to phones, and "Phone In," a low-cost subscription service for phone callers to call computer users.

full article: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticl...ternetNews&storyID=2005-12-08T073658Z_01_KRA827369_RTRUKOC_0_US-TELECOMS-YAHOO-PHONE.xml

[mandy]

Update:

Yahoo on Wednesday introduced a public beta of its instant messaging suite with voice capabilities. Consumers can now get a local telephone number in their city of choice for just US$2.99 a month. Yahoo Messenger with Voice is going head to head with Skype with a monthly price tag that runs about $1 less than the eBay property's fee.

Can Yahoo compete with the entrenched Skype? Certainly, analysts said. The Internet telephony market is still wide open. While the number of consumers adopting the technology is growing, the total population of VoIP callers is still very low...

Yahoo believes its advantage is price and an integrated approach. Yahoo Messenger with Voice includes text IM, PC-to-PC calling, e-mail, mobile text messaging, photo sharing and video...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/hedxPIkO...vice.xhtml

[trigno]

Thanks again