'Second Life' users can now phone each other

With the unveiling of its "million minutes" promotion Wednesday, Framingham, Mass.-based Vivox is now enabling "Second Life" users to speak to each other via their phones.

That's a big step for "Second Life," as the 3D virtual world does not have a default voice feature, as does "There," from Makena Technologies. And that's because Linden Lab, the publisher of "Second Life," has so far chosen not to integrate voice directly into the software.

To date, "Second Life" users have been able to use other third-party workarounds, like TeamSpeak, but Vivox is taking voice to the next level by building phone booths into the virtual world and allowing residents to call out to any telephones from them.

In addition, Vivox is also installing what it calls microphones that will allow users access to voice chat of up to five people at a time. Users would need to have Vivox accounts and the company's software client installed to take advantage of the phone booths or the microphones.

The service is only available on Windows machines. Thus, Mac-based "Second Life" users will be out of luck, at least for the time being.

As part of the promotion, Vivox is making the first million minutes of usage free. Afterward, it will charge for access, though it has not set pricing yet. According to company spokeswoman Jennifer Almeida, that's because it is not yet clear whether Vivox's software will be integrated directly by Linden Lab or whether individual "Second Life" residents and businesses will have to do it themselves.