Yahoo! Messenger would soon let users dial regular phone numbers

Yahoo! Messenger would soon let users dial regular phone numbers

Yahoo! is going offensive against eBay owned Skype VoIP service by adding similar functionality to their Yahoo! Messenger. The company plans to soon add the facility to call regular telephone numbers through their instant messenger. Currently the Yahoo! Messenger only let people call other people who are online on the same messenger application.

In addition, users of Yahoo! Messenger would also be able to receive calls from regular phones. However, as usual, these new services would be paid upgrades and the launch is expected to be soon. This comes just a while after AOL introduced similar functionality to their AIM instant messenger. Also, Skype is going a step further by adding a video conferencing facility on their application to provide an all in one solution to their users.

Sony last month also launched its own service but they are more focusing on the video part with the aim of selling more of their video conferencing related hardware. Yahoo! on their part would be charging one cent per minute in the United States and two cents a minute to about 30 other countries, including calls to Argentina, Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea for their Phone Out service.

Users would also be able pay USD 3 a month (or USD 30 for a year) to receive unlimited calls to their computers from anywhere. These prices are somewhat lower than what Skype charges and this should heat up the battle between the two Instant Messaging giants.