AIM Gets Into The VoIP Game
from the took-'em-long-enough dept
AOL is pretty well known for showing up late to the game, and it appears that they're finally recognizing the whole instant messaging/VoIP connection that Microsoft, Yahoo and Skype are already active in. Since the space is already ridiculously crowded and competing on price is not sustainable, it looks like AOL is going with a slightly different gimmick. Rather than just cheaper calls, VoIP on AIM will give users a local phone number for incoming calls for free. However, if you want to make outgoing calls, then you have to pay $15 per month and it sounds like outgoing calls are unlimited. Given that AOL is suddenly betting on AIM as the core of their new strategy (at least this week), they probably figured they needed to offer some sort of VoIP offering. Probably cost a lot less than eBay paid for Skype, though.