EarthLink launches VoIP bundle

EarthLink today put a twist on the trend of service providers offering local/long-distance voice bundles. The company is offering the service to broadband customers with voice over IP technology.

The service, dubbed EarthLink unlimited voice, is available today to any EarthLink customer using one of the company’s cable or DSL connections. At $39.99 per month, subscribers receive unlimited local and domestic long distance calling and a number of calling features, including voicemail, caller ID, call waiting. The service works through any touchtone phone, and includes free hardware for installation.

The VoIP nature of the service also allows a few additional features as well. Users can choose any area code for their VoIP telephone number, allowing for other callers from that same area code to avoid long distance charges. In addition, the service offers low-priced international calling, the company said, such as Mexico for six cents a minute, Japan for seven cents, and Great Britain for five cents.

According to an EarthLink spokesman, the offering fits in with the company’s value-added strategy, and should help lower churn among its broadband customers, whose ranks totaled 779,000 at the end of 2002.

“It’s obviously one of strategies to have more revenue,” he said. “But it also gives customers more reasons to choose broadband and to stay with us. To increase loyalty you want people to find value in their broadband.”