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AOL Talk is based on Carrier Pre-Select, a system already used by a number of virtual telcos. The advantage is that customers get to keep their BT landline and phone number. The disadvantage, however, is that you still have to pay for the BT line rental.

The service will be available as from tomorrow (17 May) for AOL subscribers. The company expects to open AOL Talk to non-AOL customers later this

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year.

While calls throughout the UK are 'free', customers will still have to pay for calls to mobiles and international numbers. AOL says that these rates will be 'competitive' and quotes prices from 2p/min to USA and Australia. For mobiles it says that a weekend calls to Vodafone mobiles will cost 5p/min rising to a peak of 13p/min.

'We've chosen to dip our toe in the water with CPS for two reasons,' said AOL spokesperson Jonathan Lambeth. 'Local Loop Unbundling is very complicated although we plan to have a trial by the end of this year. VoIP is interesting, and we've had a PC to PC product for over a year now. Most customers using VoIP want to make international calls to friends and family but not for calling granny down the road.'

The £7.99 offer is for 12 months for those who sign up to the service by the end of June. After that date the price will rise to £9.99 a month. More details of AOL Talk can be found at www.aol.co.uk/talk.