EarthLink is offering a new VoIP service, which is designed to be easy-to-use without the requirement of additional hardware.



Earthlink has collaborated with broadband access wholesaler Covad Communications to offer the VoIP service in Dallas, Seattle and the San Francisco-San Jose area from this week itself.



EarthLink is bundling the new service with DSL broadband access.



Anyway, more cities in Covad’s operating territory are pegged to offer the service later this year. However, EarthLink would not specify which of these cities are in the line.



Currently VoIP services, including the one EarthLink currently sell for $20 a month, the new service wouldn’t require consumers to add hardware. This means that the customers can use their existing phones and plug them into phone jacks like those that they do with any regular telephone service.



The technology, called ‘line-powered voice’, puts all the intelligence and equipment for offering VoIP service in Covad’s central office, where all the gear to provide the DSL service is housed.



Source: CNET News.com