EarthLink to offer free Net telephony
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The ISP's new software supports speed dialing, caller ID, three-way calling, hold capability and call logs.
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Internet phone service provider Skype plans to start charging U.S. and Canadian users US$29.95 per year for unlimited calls to regular phones in both countries, as the end of a free trial offer looms.
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By Miriam Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer  Dec. 18--The grand experiment is about to begin.   Philadelphia's push to become the country's first major city with free, or at least cheap, wireless Internet connections, takes a big step forward this month as EarthLink Inc.
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MacCentral - Internet service provider (ISP) EarthLink Inc. on Tuesday announced the launch of EarthLink Free Online Calling, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service that enables their Mac and PC to make calls over the Internet free of charge. Based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the service works with a Mac or PC equipped with a headset or an Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA). Users can make unlimited calls to other SIP users, and can also listen to voicemail via e-mail. The service also offers an online calling log and online account management. ...
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Skype Technologies, a firm that offers subscribers free phone calls over the internet, agrees a partnership with Hutchison Global Communications.
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Vapps, a US company that provides free conference calling via the Internet, announced that it would be adding the feature to Yahoo's online message service.
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EarthLink is going mostly wireless, so why not hire a guy with a wireless background?
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NEW YORK - Skype Technologies made a name for itself providing a free Internet telephone program to users around the world. Now it&#39;s time to cash in.
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VoIP provider Skype has teamed up with Siemens Communications to offer cordless phones in a move that gives Skype users the ability to drop their headsets and use Siemens phones for free Web telephoning.
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Skype said it would begin charging $30 a year for unlimited calls to landline and mobile phones within the United States and Canada.
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Consumers who wish to subscribe to DSL Internet service without paying for telephone service have a new option, at least in certain areas. EarthLink's Freestanding DSL runs $14.95 for 1.5Mbps of bandwidth and $19.95 for 3.0Mbps.
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A Silicon Valley startup wants to shake up the telecommunications industry with a $399 gizmo that provides free, unlimited domestic phone calls for homes with broadband Internet service.
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Fring, a mobile-phone version of Skype, uses peer-to-peer Internet technology to send calls from mobile phones over the Internet at no charge.
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Ribbit, based in Mountain View, Calif., will announce a telephone Web service intended to make it possible for programmers to add telephone features to any Web page.
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(InfoWorld) - EarthLink's announcement that it will lay off 900 people is a blow to broadband competition, but some industry followers say it doesn't signal the end of municipal Wi-Fi. While EarthLink's statement about the job cuts doesn't include a single mention of Wi-Fi, the company's municipal Wi-Fi business is likely to be hit hard. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made on Tuesday says the position of president of municipal networks is being eliminated and Don Berryman, who held the position, is one of the employees being let go. At the end of June, EarthLink had just over 2,000 employees. In addition, EarthLink has been reining in its municipal efforts since earlier this year. Most recently, in July, the company saidÂ it would not take on any new municipal Wi-Fi projectsÂ until it's confident of a reasonable return. EarthLink's woes could eliminate the potential for new competition in the broadband industry. "What you won't see any more is a new entrant in the telecom business coming in like EarthLink did and trying to build green-field networks and compete against the incumbent to build a third pipe to the consumer," said Ron Sege, CEO of Tropos Networks, the vendor that supplies EarthLink with Wi-Fi network equipment. Instead, he suspects that existing operators will build Wi-Fi networks as an extension of their DSLÂ offerings and that cities may build the networks in order to use them for public safety applications or meter reading. EarthLink's troubles point to a couple of problems with many of the municipal Wi-Fi business plans, said Phil Solis, an analyst at ABI Research. "The whole premise of doing municipal Wi-Fi was that it would be extremely low cost," he said. "But the low-cost assumptions were built on having 30 or 40 Wi-Fi [access points] per square mile." In practice, operators found they might need as many as 100, which changed the economics, he said. In addition, some operators assumed that the municipalities would use the networks, but in some cases that didn't happen. Some newer contracts are requiring municipalities to commit to a certain level of business, guaranteeing the operators some revenue, he said. Solis called EarthLink's restructuring a "reality check." Operators and cities are better off considering Wi-Fi, WiMax, and cellular, depending on the application, he said. Wi-Fi can still work in dense areas and will work even better when 802.11n, a faster Wi-Fi standard, becomes widely used, he said. Given more time, EarthLink might have succeeded, Sege said. Gary Betty, EarthLink's former president and CEO, started the municipal Wi-Fi business at the company. But Betty suddenly died in early January, leaving no one to "carry the flag" for municipal Wi-Fi, Sege said. He suspects that Betty may have had a long-term growth plan that would have seen the networks start to pay off in around five years. New President and CEO Rolla Huff hopes for a quicker payoff, he said. EarthLink, which has scheduled a conference call for Wednesday to further discuss the restructuring, has not said what it plans to do with the Wi-Fi networks it has already built. It operates networks in Anaheim, California; Corpus Christi, Texas; Milpitas, California; New Orleans, and Philadelphia. It could continue to operate them or consider selling them to Clearwire or Sprint Nextel, companies that are just beginning to build WiMax networks. EarthLink's customers and access to city infrastructure for hanging network equipment could be valuable to them, Sege said. News of the restructuring could cloud the municipal Wi-Fi initiative in San Francisco, where city officials early this year finished negotiating a contract with EarthLink. The network still needs approval by the city's Board of Supervisors. A committee is scheduled to vote next week whether to send the contract on to the full board for approval. Opponents have used EarthLink's financial woes to raise question the viability of the plan. In its statement, EarthLink said it expects subscriber additions to slow down in 2008. At the end of June, EarthLink had more than three million dial-up and 1.1 million broadband subscribers. In addition to offering wired and wireless Internet service, EarthLink is also part owner of Helio, a struggling mobile virtual network operator. (Stephen Lawson in San Francisco contributed to this story).
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Company launches new VoIP service that lets Internet phone calls be made through a browser without a heavy client software download.
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Earthlink on Tuesday said it now distributes software that lets people make free unlimited calls over a broadband connection. EarthLink Free Online Calling is anything but revolutionary.