My colleague Simon Avery reports in today's Globe and Mail that AOL Canada, the Canadian unit of Time Warner Inc., will be the first AOL unit in the world to provide a voice-over-IP service. AOL Canada will offer it first in the Toronto area for about $30 a month. Simon writes:
"That price will include unlimited local calling, 60 minutes a month of free calling anywhere in North America, and numerous features for which traditional carriers, such as BCE Inc.'s Bell Canada and Telus Corp., charge a premium. These include call display, call waiting, three-way calling and call forwarding . . . Additional standard features will include the ability to receive voice messages in an e-mail account as an audio file, the ability to have a single phone number to ring at up to three different locations simultaneously or in sequence, and the option to use the phone service from other computers that have a broadband connection . .
AOL's TotalTalk will be available to anyone with a broadband Internet connection, regardless of whether it's an AOL connection or not ... [Read the full story in today's Globe and Mail]