Om Malik has the “Scoop” on a new Yahoo VoIP service to rival eBay’s Skype service (to compete with SkypeIn / SkypeOut in particular).
…The new release of the IM client has a brand new voice core, and it allows users to make phone calls to PSTN phones as well, in addition to PC-to-PC calls.
Users can receive unlimited domestic calls for $2.99 a month or $29.90 a year, and they can purchase prepaid voice credit in $10 and $25 increments.
Although the calls will not be free, they will be extraordinarily inexpensive — a penny a minute to anywhere in the United States and less than 2 cents a minute to more than 30 countries, including China, Japan and Sweden.
“These prices, in most cases, offer dramatic reductions over other competitors out there,'’ said Jeff Bonforte, senior director of voice product management for Yahoo.
VoIP consultant Andy Abramson said that Yahoo’s deep pockets allow it to force Skype into a price war.
“Yahoo can toy with Skype,'’ said Abramson, chief executive of Comunicano.
Abramson said Yahoo has another advantage — the ability to integrate voice across many other parts of its vast network, from e-mail to music and gaming.
“Yahoo has all those community and content assets to lay into the voice thing,'’ he said.
This makes me wonder what Google may do to try and improve its Basic Google Talk service which has very basic features to allow you to talk through your computer.
By SEO Outline on 03-20-2006