AOL Enters the VoIP market

freitasm writes "AOL is entering the VoIP market with its new service entitled 'AOL Internet Phone Service'. The service will be available in 40 cities around the US and offer integrated IM presence indicator, voice/e-mail and features like Call Waiting, CallerID. As a bonus current AOL members wil receive a wireless AP when signing-up for the service."

Emergency services

[WeirdKid]

Notice that 911 isn't listed in the services offered. AOL's service likely suffers from the same deficiency as Vonage in this respect. Vonage's TOS says that if you cannot clearly state the nature of your emergency and your location, emergency services may not be dispatched. I'm sticking with my land line until the VoIP providers get the 911 thing figured out.

Re:It's as easy as point-and-click

[dfn5]

So, when the phone rings, will it play "You've got telephone"?

More like "You've got telemarketers". I believe VOIP is not covered by the do not call list.

Free Forever?

[zoomba]

I wonder if AOL will treat its VoIP subscribers like they do normal AOL users when they want to cancel their account.

About 3 years ago I loaded up an AOL free trial CD just for shits and giggles, and to see how much it had changed since I last used it (1.0). Well, I found the experience disappointing (as I expected though) and at the end of the trial went to cancel.

What happened at that point was a 30min conversation where the sales rep practically begged me to keep the service. He offered me 6 months free and told me that if I make this same call every 5-6 months I could end up not paying for the service ever again. I think I said "No, just cancel the damn account, I DO NOT LIKE THE SERVICE" about two dozen times. Finally, defeated, the rep canceled the account. That was the most painful phone convo I've ever had.

I'm wondering if I can pull the free-forever scheme with their VoIP service. Think they'll be desperate enough for subscribers to it?

Wow, OSS beat our the commercial Version

[bahwi]

http://sipphone.com/phonegaim/ [sipphone.com] has been around for awhile. =)

Test your connection...

[fiji]

If you are at all interested in this service (or one of the alternate offerings from the other VoIP providers) then make sure your line can support a VoIP call by using this free service: ahref=http://testyourvoip.com/ [slashdot.org]http://testyourvoip. com/>.

Also you can roll your own with the Asterix software, and some cheap hardware... (URL:http://asterix.org/ [asterix.org]). There are companies who you can pay to bridge to the phone network calls from an Asterix server.

-ben

Only 40 cities? Why not everywhere?

[dnaboy]

I can't understand why they would only launch in 40 cities instead of nationwide (or worldwide). I've got vonage, and when I signed up, I got to pick phone numbers from essentially anywhere in N. America, so really, where the customer is located doesn't matter.

For what it's worth, my vonage line is my home office line, so I've even been known to travel with it when I want to work from my college friend's house. Just plug it in to their cable modem, then plug it in to a phone. Ultimate portability.

Call Me Paranoid but

[TooCynical]

AOL/TM knows my buddies, surfing habits, shopping preferrences, magazines subscriptions, TV and cable viewing tendencies - do they really need to know who I talk with on the phone???

I am probably giving them more credit than they are due but knowing that much about 40+ million people cannot be good...

Re:Does anybody know if this is open or proprietar

[mamladm]

But that might only refer to the backbone, not the "last mile" between AOL's POPs and AOL customer premises.

If they use SIP for the last mile, that would mean you could use your own SIP phone to connect to the network. I am kind of skeptical about AOL using a standard protocol, though.

This is good...

[Run4yourlives]

But the real fun will begin in a few years when VOIP, combined with free WI-FI seriously impacts the telecom giants.

Then we'll see RIAA vs. the people all over again (Save me the "Copyright is theft" rant).

I'm keeping me fingers crossed, but experience tells me this is going to be a massive legal mess.

Speakeasy Too

[Greyfox]

I got some snail-mail spam from Speakeasy and they're getting into the market too. They also address 911 service, although I'd be willing to bet that it won't work if the power goes out. Standard telephone service works during power outages as long as you don't have a phone that needs to be plugged into a wall socket. Still, I might have to take 'em up on it since Qwest has been ass-raping me on phone service since I moved into the area.

If memory serves me correctly, and I do believe it does, a phone jack that doesn't have service has to, by law, provide 911 service. So if you were concerned about the 911 service from... whoever... you could get a red bat-phone style phone and plug it into a wall jack in case you ever need to make that emergency call.