SBC Communications Inc. plans to begin selling Internet-based phone service in Michigan and other states in 2005, a move that analysts say is necessary for the company to keep large numbers of customers from defecting.

Michigan residents will be able to sign up early next year for the service, which routes calls over a high-speed Internet connection instead of SBC's century-old network of copper wires. Users plug a telephone into an adapter the size of a paperback book, then make and receive calls exactly as usual.

Continued at: americasnetwork.com