Google to launch free phone calls

Google, the company which revolutionised the internet, is planning to launch a free telephone service.

The service will link users via a broadband internet connection using a headset and a home computer.

The technology that will allow Google to move into the telecommunications market is not new. Software from London-based Skype has been downloaded nearly 54 million times around the world, but it has not been properly exploited.

BT, which connects seven out of ten British households, has developed its own internet telephone service, but has been reluctant to promote it heavily. Julian Hewitt, senior partner at Ovum, a telecoms consultancy, said: "There is a big appeal in the fact that Google is a search operation - and of course the Google brand is a huge draw."

A Google telephone service could be made to link with the Google search engine. A surfer looking for a clothing retailer could find the website and click on the screen to speak to the shop.

It costs almost nothing to make calls across the internet; the cost lies in the software.