[Berlin, GERMANY] The freemail provider WEB.DE AG, in Karlsruhe, Germany, started up its technology and infrastructure today for nationwide Internet telephony. WEB.DE is implementing Internet telephony using voice over IP (speech transmission by way of an Internet protocol). This makes it possible to make telephone calls over the Internet from any PC using the conventional telephone network at the applicable local rate. WEB.DE AG attained access to this technology through its involvement with the VoIP Group, Miami, USA.

As its first application of this technology, WEB.DE AG is now offering Internet telephony as an additional service in its WEB.DE FreeMail Unified Messaging Service. The integration is being implemented as a service financed through advertising, which is marketed with a gross margin of around 60 percent with the "pay per click" method. WEB.DE FreeMail belongs to Germany's large Unified Messaging Service, and according to the company it already has over 2.1 million users.

Additional applications are already being planned, such as integration in the area of B2B communication by way of the WEB.DE subsidiary Workways GmbH, and expansion to include international calls as well.