AOL to Give out Free Phone Numbers - What Next??

I just read the other day that AOL plans to give out free phone numbers with it's AIM service. Just like all of the other dominant players like, MSN, Yahoo, Ebay and Google, AOL now offers free VoIP calls to other AIM users. It was developed to help enhance their product and gain back valuable market share which it has been steadily loosing over the last few quarters.

While I am not a big fan of this free phone call push that has been going on lately (it is definitely going to have an adverse effect on those of us in the "Paid" long distance business), I have to draw the line on AOL giving out free phone numbers. Skype offers phone numbers but charges for them and I would have to agree that there should be a minimal charge for the phone number as we the carriers have to pay a few bucks per month just to maintain the number. AOL has basically said that they will eat the cost of the phone numbers in order to try and gain back market share... While it serves their purposes (maybe) the rest of the telecom world is now faced with a dilemma! Give the stuff away at a loss or don't do business at all!

Is it wrong to want to make money in business?

Good luck to you AOL and I hope this desperate move ends up postponing your inevitable demise.