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Yahoo! is combining forces with British Telecommunications to create a new call management platform based on Yahoo! Messenger.

United Kingdom residents will now be able to make phone calls over the Internet using Yahoo! Messenger integrated with BT Communicator.

Today's announcement marks the first time that a major Internet company has teamed up with an established telecommunications company to offer integrated call management to the mainstream consumer.

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The two companies have a pre-existing relationship and in June 2003 began delivering co-branded broadband to UK customers. Yahoo! has a similar VoIP arrangement in the United States with Net2Phone, which provides worldwide communication solutions.

Expected to launch this year, Yahoo! Messenger with BT Communicator will be expanded across the Yahoo! Network and various BT channels, offering Internet call waiting, directory lookup and more.

This is part of Yahoo!'s efforts to make Yahoo! Messenger "an essential communications hub on the Internet" - although BT will reap the benefits of having BT Communicator made quickly available to millions of UK users.

"Yahoo! and BT are both focused on innovation and delivering exciting products that bring the power of the Internet directly to consumers," said Jim Brock, senior vice president of Communications and Consumer Services at Yahoo!, which is based in California. "It is fitting that our two companies are the first to take Internet telephony mainstream in the U.K."

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