New Messenger Beta Talks to Regular Phones   

Once again Yahoo! answers the call for better ways to stay in touch.

With the international release of our new beta of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice (U.S. release slated for early 2006), the world can start making PC-to-Phone calls at low rates. Customers can also get their own phone number and receive Phone-to-PC calls. Talk is cheap, and Yahoo! delivers.

No longer exclusively for PC-to-PC calling, the new beta of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice is ready for international release. Local versions have been made available in France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore and Spain. A U.S. release is planned for early 2006. If you are outside the U.S., get it now -- and from the convenience of your own computer make PC-to-Phone calls. Plus let people ring you on your computer through Phone-to-PC calls.

As well as making calling more convenient, our expanded VoIP services also reduce the cost of staying in touch.

In the words of Brad Garlinghouse, our Vice President of Communications Product, Yahoo! is excited to be the first major IM provider to bring full-featured PC-based phone calling capabilities to our international Yahoo! Messenger community,?said Brad Garlinghouse, vice president, Communications Products, Yahoo! Inc. 밃s we look forward, we see an extraordinary opportunity for Yahoo! to provide next generation voice services across our global network, from communications to search, which will deliver great value to our hundreds of millions of users around the world.?

Specifically, here what the new Yahoo! Messenger with Voice Beta delivers:

Phone Out: International audiences can make low cost calls to more than 180 countries from their PC to traditional phones and mobile phones. Calls to the U.S. can be made for about one U.S. cent a minute and to more than 30 international countries for less than about two U.S. cents a minute, including calls to Europe, Asia and the Americas. To simplify worldwide Phone Out calling, prepaid credit plans are available.

Phone In: The Phone In service gives international audiences the ability to receive calls on their PC from traditional and mobile phones. For about U.S. $2.99 a month or about U.S. $29.90 a year, people can select a personal phone number, and receive incoming calls at no additional charge.5 For instance, Hong Kong residents, who have friends and family in San Francisco, are able to choose a local San Francisco-based phone number. When remote friends and family make calls to the personal number, they will be charged for placing a local phone call to that phone number. People can choose to have multiple phone numbers, and wherever they travel, their phone numbers will follow them. In the beta service, country-based phone numbers are initially available in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States with additional country-based numbers available in the coming months.

Contact Search Bar: The new Contact Search Bar provides a fast way to find and quickly connect with friends and family. As people type their friends?name, Yahoo! ID, phone number, nickname or any other information stored in their contact details, matching results will automatically populate the Contact Search Bar. People then choose how they want to communicate with their friend -- whether it is through text IM, voice calling, e-mail or mobile text messaging.

Open Talk: By setting the status message to open Talk,?people let their friends instantly connect to them via a PC-to-PC voice conversation at any time. Because there is a direct connection, there is no need to accept an incoming call request. This is a great solution for working parents to have a consistent connection with their kids at home, or for sports fans to communicate with each other while watching the big game on TV.

Get the beta now, and be sure to tell your friends and family about the great opportunity that calling at Yahoo!.