International Phone Card Central Articles

Internet Phone Service

Date: Apr 11, 2005
Contributor: Nannie Jarret

AOL offers Web phone in Detroit

Motor City joins 39 markets with unlimited Internet service that starts at $40 monthly.

America Online Inc., the company that introduced millions of Americans to the Internet, today plans to announce it will begin selling Internet-based phone service in Detroit and 39 other markets.

AOL Internet Phone uses what's known as voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP, allowing customers to use their regular phones to make calls that are routed over the Internet instead of copper phone lines. The service is expected not only to help America Online make up for declining membership but also to give consumers more evidence the technology is reliable.

"We have done everything possible in our service to make it as simple and easy as possible," said James Tobin, vice president for voice strategy at America Online. For $40 a month -- it's $10 off for the first six months, and discounted for current members -- AOL Internet phone offers unlimited calling to anywhere in North America and advanced features such as Web-based call management and the ability to retrieve voicemails using e-mail.

That's less than the $50 that households pay for phone service on average, according to a survey conducted on behalf of America Online, although most VoIP providers charge $20 to $30 a month for comparable services.

America Online also is offering some features that other Internet phone companies don't, including Enhanced 911 calling that automatically displays a caller's location to a dispatcher. Because Internet-based phones are not tied to a specific location, most VoIP customers have to manually register their address for 911 calling and some services aren't compatible at all.

Other Internet-phone carriers, including Lingo, AT&T and Vonage, said Wednesday that they would welcome competition."With VoIP being so new, there's room for a lot of companies to come in," said Jamie Serino, a spokesman for Vonage, the nation's largest and fastest-growing carrier.





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