Yahoo Launches US VoIP Services
Yahoo shipped enhancements to its Messenger with Voice client on Wednesday, adding support for U.S. users to place and receive phone calls to and from traditional phones. Calls to U.S. or 30 international countries would cost less than two cents a minute, while the capability to receive calls would cost $2.99 USD per month or $29.90 USD annually.
Previously, the company had only introduced the feature to select users in seven countries back in December. Yahoo says it plans to bring the new features to its co-branded Internet access services in the coming months.
"We look forward to further incorporating voice features into Yahoo!'s global services, from communications to search, to help simplify and improve the Internet experience for our hundreds of millions of users around the world," Yahoo communications vice president Brad Garlinghouse said in a statement.
As well as providing the Phone In and Out features, Yahoo would also include a free voicemail for missed PC-to-PC and PC-to-Phone calls. Additionally, Yahoo has integrated voicemail functionality into its mail client, meaning users can check their messages through that service.
In addition to the United States, the new version of Yahoo Messenger with Voice would also be available to France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, and Spain, as well as a specialized version for Yahoo en Espanol.
Those wishing to find out more about the VoIP service can visit the Yahoo Voice website.