AOL to launch VoIP within a month

Jonathan Miller, AOL chief executive, said that the “AOL Internet Phone Service” will use the instant messenger "buddy list" facility on AOL to show users whether friends were currently available.

The service would be rolled out first to AOL members in limited locations and over time made available to the mass market, Miller added.

Customers will be able to use their existing phones through an adapter that links them in to their broadband routers. Miller added that the introduction of the VOIP service, the AIM service will become a "dashboard" for users to move easily between e-mail, instant messaging and voice calls.

The plans currently relate to the US market. In the UK, AOL already offers a VoIP service on a PC to PC basis, built into its Instant Messaging feature, but it has yet to introduce a service that offers calls to landlines.

Jonathan Lambeth, director of communicatisn at AOL Uk, said: “Our plan is to launch a VoIP service when we complete the Local Loop Unbundling of BT lines. We will then have access to our own infrastructure in which to offer VoIP as part of a larger broadband package.”

“We have already unbundled some BT lines in the UK, and hope to complete the process next year,” Lambeth added.

This week, rival ISP Wanadoo launched its own "VoIP service":http://www.netimperative.com/2005/03/09/Wanadoo_VoIP/view?searchterm=wanadoo in the UK, charging users £4 a month to make free evening and weekend calls to any UK landline, as well as make free calls at any time to other Wanadoo Wireless and Talk users.