Yahoo VoIP: Phone Service and Broadband Internet Solutions to Home and Businesses

Yahoo has rolled out its long-anticipated VoIP, or voice over Internet protocol, phone service plan offering. Yahoo announced the development of its VoIP broadband phone service in May 2005, and nearly a year later the finished product has hit the market. Although Yahoo is a late comer to the highly competitive world of VoIP, Yahoo emphasizes the appeal of integrated services and the unique characteristics of VoIP telephone technology to differentiate itself in the marketplace.

Yahoo Instant Messenger with Voice VoIP Phone Services

Yahoo has introduced Instant Messenger with Voice, its offering in the computer-to-phone VoIP market. Yahoo VoIP allows customers to use their computers to make and receive voice calls using a computer and installed software to landlines and mobile phones. Although computer-to-phone offerings abound with service plans like Skype, AOL and Microsoft MSN, Yahoo differentiates itself by offering a feature-rich alternative that integrates everything customers do to communicate on the Internet into one software suite. Yahoo VoIP plans to integrate its VoIP computer-to-phone services with text instant messaging, PC-to-PC calling, e-mail, mobile text messaging, photo sharing, and video calls.

Yahoo VoIP is in a unique position to fill this niche in the market, as Yahoo has an extensive library of related applications at its disposal that are ripe for integration. For instance, Yahoo VoIP is able to offer a link between Yahoo Messenger and other Yahoo services, such as shared address books, and VoIP services that other VoIP providers are not able to match. In addition to calling services, Yahoo VoIP also features free voicemail and a contact search bar, allowing consumers to integrate all contact information for their correspondents.

Yahoo VoIP Service: Business Applications

In addition to providing rich, consumer-oriented integration of communication suites, Yahoo VoIP may also change the way companies do business over VoIP. Cost reduction is currently the primary cited reason businesses switch to VoIP, but Yahoo hopes to change this reasoning by emphasizing the practical advantages VoIP technology affords over standard telephone services.

Yahoo VoIP offers a new set of tools due to its extensive integration with existing services; with Yahoo VoIP, businesses are be able to digitize incoming calls, tag them with an already existing address book entry, and then forward them on to the relevant department. This strategy eliminates frustrating hours spent forwarding client concerns that do not necessarily come in through the correct department, often becoming garbled or misinterpreted as they pass through different channels within the organization.

Yahoo VoIP over Broadband Internet

Yahoo VoIP offers many advantages to consumers and businesses alike, but in order to take full advantage of the service it is necessary to invest in a high speed broadband connection. The strength of Yahoo VoIP is its integration with demanding online applications such as video phone and instant messaging software that may not perform to its full potential on a standard dial-up connection. Furthermore, the nature of VoIP phone services is such that a high speed Internet connection is necessary to avoid frequently dropped calls and substandard voice quality. If you need a high speed broadband Internet connection to enjoy Yahoo VoIP, you may want to consider one of these high speed Internet providers.