A new Internet phone service was announced by Google on Wednesday. The search behemoth said its Gmail users can now take advantage of the free Internet phone service and dial directly from their computers starting on Wednesday.
Internet giant Google said its U.S. Gmail customers can dial phones from their computers for free starting Wednesday.
International calls would be billed at "really cheap" rates, Google said. For example, calls to Britain, France, Germany, Japan and China would be billed at 2 cents a minute, the company said.
In an interview with BBC News, Craig Walker, Google's product manager for real-time communications, said, "this is a real big deal because now hundreds of millions of Gmail users can make phone calls right from their Gmail page."
"They don't need to download an additional application or anything to start making really high-quality, low-cost calls. For the user, it means much more efficient and low-cost communications."
Previously, Gmail only allowed customers to use a voice system if they were both close to their computers.
The service, which competes with online phone service Skype, will be made available to Gmail account customers automatically but is not yet available for accounts linked to Google Apps for schools or businesses, Google said in a statement.
"We're working on making this available more broadly -- so stay tuned," Google said.
