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More stories by this authorOn the heels of scrapping free Web-based long distance calling on its instant messenger application, Yahoo! said its voice portal -- which provides voice-activated services like access to e-mail, weather reports and sports news - would be available only to paid subscribers.
Both services are powered by New Jersey-based Voice-over Internet Protocol (Vo-IP) firm Net2Phone Inc. The Yahoo! By Phone service was launched last Fall.
The decision to start charging for the Yahoo! voice portal follows a decision by Net2Phone to restructure its deal with Yahoo! to get paid for telephony services provided.
Before, Net2Phone was paying big bucks for exclusive placement on the Yahoo! portal. Now that the placement contract has been renegotiated, it's no surprise that Yahoo! is parting company with freeloaders.
The Yahoo by Phone portal currently gives users a dedicated 800 number to access e-mail, news, stock quotes, weather, sports and voicemail using voice commands.
Yahoo! has not yet set the fee for the premium service, saying it will be announced on May 1. The premium service goes live on May 7.
Yahoo! competes with Mountain View, Calif.-based TellMe Networks, Inc. in the voice portal space. HeyAnita also offers a free voice portal service to consumers.
However, unlike Yahoo!, HeyAnita and TellMe do not depend heavily on advertising revenue to keep their coffers full; the two companies make money mostly from the B2B market, selling voice-recognition applications and hosting services.
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Net2Phone's voice hosting service would integrate speech recognition technology into the platform.
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