AOL to offer free local phone number- report
AOL is planning later this month to launch AIM Phoneline, a free service for AIM users that would let them receive incoming calls from any phone, USA Today reported on Thursday.
Users could pay $14.95 a month for the ability to make calls through their AIM service to any number in the U.S. and 30 other countries, the article said, citing John McKinley, AOL chief technology officer.
An AOL spokesman said he could not comment late on Thursday but would try to reach spokespeople who could.
Voice over instant messaging is built into AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger, but AIM Phoneline would be the first to offer a free phone number. Skype charges about $4 a month for a phone number.
AOL also plans to roll out in mid-May a rival to MySpace called AIM Pages that will alert people when contacts in their buddy list update their AIM Pages blog, the article said.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
