MSN Offers PC-to-Phone Calling

In all-day meetings, so there's no time to really blog (drat!). MSN follows Yahoo! and AOL in offering VoIP PC-to-phone calling (through MSN messenger). MSN is doing this in partnership with MCI (being acquired by Verizon).

Here are the details:

MCI and Microsoft are testing the service as part of a Windows Live Messenger limited beta with subscriptions initially available in the United States, and expect to jointly deliver the PC-to-phone calling capabilities to France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom in the coming weeks. Once subscribed to the service, customers can place calls to and from more than 220 countries with rates starting at $.023 per minute to the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Western Europe during the beta testing period. Upon sign-up, MCI Web Calling customers will receive up to one hour of free calls. Final pricing will be determined when the product officially launches in 2006.

This is undoubtedly a prelude (at some future point) to PPCall (via VoIP) integration for local merchants through Windows Live Local.

Here's more from AP.