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PC Calls Easy As Clicking; Microsoft, MCI Plan Test Run This Week of 'Live Call' Service

Posted on: Friday, 16 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE Associated Press writer

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. and MCI Inc. said Monday they'll soon offer a service that lets customers place calls from their personal computers to regular phones.

But the service will permit only outbound calls at first, even as rivals Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc. allow instant-messaging users to receive calls from conventional phones as well as to call out.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and MCI, the telecommunications provider being acquired by Verizon Communications Inc., said they will begin a test run of the service in the United States this week. Broader availability is set for the first half of next year.

The service will use technology from Teleo Inc., a small startup that Microsoft acquired in August. Teleo's Internet telephony software lets people make voice calls by clicking on phone numbers appearing on a Web page.

It's the latest offering to use Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, technology. Calls are broken into data packets that get routed over the Internet, an approach that is cheaper and more efficient than the traditional circuit-switched phone system.

Last week, Yahoo announced it would add computer-to-phone calling capabilities to its instant-messaging service, after a similar retooling of the rival AOL Instant Messenger service from Time Warner Inc. earlier this fall.

Microsoft and MCI's new service, which the companies have dubbed "MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call," will allow users of MSN Messenger, Microsoft's instant messaging service, to call land lines or cell phones. Microsoft said it was working to add additional capabilities.

Rates will start at 2.3 cents a minute during the test period. Pricing for the final version will be set when the service launches next year.

Customers will sign up for the computer-to-phone calling service through its new Windows Live Messenger software, which will eventually replace MSN Messenger, and buy prepaid calling time from MCI in $5, $10 and $25 blocks.

Source: Columbian

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