Yak Communications Offers Free Voice and Video Internet Calling

Yak Communications Inc., a provider of telecommunications services to residential and business customers, has launched yakForFree – available at www.yakforfree.com – a VoIP service that allows users to make and receive free unlimited voice and video calls to and from other yakForFree members.

By downloading the free Virtual VideoPhone, users can make free calls over the Internet using a high-speed connection.

“yakForFree has the potential to reach millions of people worldwide, establishing Yak as a premier global VoIP provider,” says Charles Zwebner, Yak’s chairman and CEO. “With the video capabilities, friends and family who live anywhere in the world can now ‘see’ each other more frequently. The familiar PDA-like appearance of our Virtual VideoPhone and easy and intuitive download will appeal to even the most technophobic users.”

Users with an off-the-shelf PC camera can take advantage of free, two-way video calling and streaming video. In addition to video and IM capabilities, yakForFree has all of the features of traditional telephones, including: audio conference for 10 users, unlimited distributed conferencing, quad-user video conference, audio and video call recording, speakerphone mode, call transfer, call logs and missed call indicator, auto answer and conference and do-not-disturb.

Users can search the Yak Community directory listing at www.yakcommunity.com and, with the Buddy List feature, see which contacts are online at any given time. For more features and functionality, users can upgrade to one of Yak’s three WorldCity VoIP paid services to make voice calls to traditional landline telephones and cellular telephones worldwide.

“yakForFree will further demonstrate the quality and value of our VoIP capabilities and is expected to assist Yak transition from a legacy telephony company, with roots in providing long-distance service to ethnically and geographically diverse communities that require an economical way to stay in touch with friends and family in other countries, into a next-generation Internet-based communications and commerce company,” states David B. Hurwitz, COO and president of VoIP Initiatives. “We believe that people who use yakForFree will be so pleased by the quality and cost of our video and calling services that they will upgrade to a prepaid or subscriber-based Yak VoIP service that will allow them to call people on their phone and/or cellular phones.”

Other offerings from Yak include:

• yakToAnyone: Users can call family and friends who are not yakForFree members on their home, business and/or cellular phones by purchasing prepaid credits to make outbound calls to any regular domestic or international landline or cellular number.
• yakBasic: This subscription service delivers calls anywhere in the world from any high-speed Internet connection, at extremely low rates. The plan includes 10 hours of outbound calling within the United States and Canada for $9.99 per month.
• yakUnlimited: yakUnlimited is an inexpensive replacement for an existing phone line, or an extremely cost-effective second phone line for a home or home office. It offers all of the features of yakForFree and yakBasic, plus a U.S. or Canadian local phone number to facilitate inbound calling. Unlimited inbound and outbound U.S. and Canada calling costs $19.99 per month.

International calls for yakToAnyone, yakBasic and yakUnlimited are billed on a per-minute basis.