Vodafone has just got involved in Second Life, the virtual world for people without lives away from their PCs.
According to New Media Age, Vodafone Inside Out launched yesterday in beta form. It will let Second Life users call other avatars within the ‘world’, and even make calls to mobiles in the real world.
Second Life friends will be able to speak to one another and send texts both into and out of, the Second Life ‘world’, even if one is offline.
Second Life avatars can collect ‘handsets’ from Inside Out vending machines and receive unique numbers used for making calls and texts.
However, unless you’re a Second Life user – or you’re reading this story – you probably won’t see this advertised anywhere because Inside Out will only be advertised in the virtual world through Second Life newspapers The AvaStar and Metaverse Messenger.
The service within Second Life will be free until 30 November 2007, although there’s no indication yet what it’ll cost after this date.
[From New Media Age]
you find the costs after the trial on the vodafone webpage - up to 300 L$ per minute/message:
“The phone itself is free: to get your hands on one, just register on the Vodafone InsideOut island in Second Life. Any usage of Vodafone InsideOut initiated from Second Life is free-of-charge until 30th November 2007. Afterwards all messages and voice calls initiated inside Second Life may be charged up to 300 L$ per minute/message. Any usage from your mobile phone calling into Second Life is charged according to your tariff plan of your chosen telco provider.”