EarthLink To Test Wi-Fi Phones

Internet service provider EarthLink later this year will test Wi-Fi cell phones and a high-speed Internet package that includes unlimited local telephone service, the company said this week.

The tests are the latest indication that EarthLink is trying to capture a significantly larger portion of the U.S. telephone service market.

While the company has been offering broadband telephony for several years, the new high-speed package would establish it as the latest major ISP brand to offer, on a large scale, VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol, which is software that allows an Internet connection to double as a phone line. EarthLink will have strong competition from cable operators such as Vonage and other broadband phone service providers such as AT&T CallVantage, 8×8 and Primus.

EarthLink expects that the makeover of its Internet telephony services will yield a half billion dollars in telephone revenue by 2009, and ultimately will serve 2 percent of all U.S. homes, EarthLink executives said during an interview on Thursday. EarthLink doesn’t share its phone subscriber tallies or revenues, but the projected tallies are considered a significant improvement over the company’s current customer base for phone service.

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