Microsoft jumps into Pc-to-Phone Bandwagon

After Yahoo having announced its PC to phone calling service on the new Yahoo messenger with voice last week, Microsoft has announced its partnership with MCI Inc. to offer internet based phone service on its latest Windows Live Messenger.

MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call will be integrated into Windows Live Messenger -- the soon-to-launch upgrade of MSN Messenger -- and use technology from both companies, including Microsoft software Get your FREE Oracle Database Software Kit today! and MCI’s existing VoIP network. The service will enable calls from personal computers to traditional phones.

The decision to partner with a telecom company could give Microsoft an important ally as it moves further into the online voice market. The company sees the service as a "natural extension" of the free PC-to-PC voice and video features already offered as part of its instant-messaging program, said Brian Arbogast, an MSN corporate vice president.

"We’re not at all a phone company, and we have no intentions of being a phone company," Arbogast said. "We’ve built a model where we can leverage all of our technological investments and marry them with the investments, the competencies and the expertise of a phone company such as MCI."

MCI and Microsoft said they are testing the Windows Live Messenger service among 10,000 users, which they expect to expand to include tens of millions of Microsoft instant messaging users within four months. The service will be made available to subscribers in countries worldwide within a year.

Subscriptions initially will be available in five markets - starting with the United States and then extending to Britain, France, Germany and Spain in the next few weeks, said Blake Irving, vice president of MSN Communications Services.

Once a customer subscribes to the new service, customers will be able to place calls for 2.3 cents a minute to phones in any of the five countries. Prepaid calling time can be purchased from MCI in $ 5, $ 10 or $ 25 increments.