MCI and Microsoft team up on VoIP offering

The VoIP market is set to become even more crowded. Microsoft and MCI are teaming up to offer a service which will allow PC-to-Phone calls. The service will use technology developed by Teleo, a small company Microsoft acquired in August, it will be named “MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call”. Testing will commence this week, with broad availability in the first half of next year.

Though it is likely just a starting point, it seems odd that the companies will only be offering PC-to-phone services while most of their rivals allow incoming calls as well as outgoing calls. They will surely add more services in the future in order to become competitive in the sector.

The service will be available a part of the next version of MSN Messenger. During the test, the cost of calls will be 2.3 cents per minute. You will have to buy blocks of time from MCI for $5, $10 or $25. A bit steep considering 0.1 cents per minute is quite common among other service providers.