AOL To Announce VoIP Details This Week

SAN FRANCISCO -- America Online, which announced its plans to offer Voice over IP services last month, will provide pricing and availability details later this week, possibly as soon as Thursday.

"We're having an announcement this week," said AOL chief executive Jon Miller, in a quick interview following his participation in a panel discussion at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association show here Monday. An AOL spokesperson with Miller said the announcement would take place at or near the company's Dulles, Va., headquarters, and would provide pricing and availability details that were missing from the initial announcement at the Spring 2005 VON show last month.

While the spokesperson did not have a specific date for the announcement, he said it could happen as early as Thursday.

Miller did not offer any further specifics on AOL's VoIP plans Monday. Last month, he said that AOL would likely offer VoIP to current AOL users first, then to a wider audience. AOL also previously said it will buy wholesale VoIP services from Level3, and will partner with Sonus Networks Inc. for VoIP back-end networking equipment and infrastructure.