TalkFree Telecom has launched a new, low-cost PC-to-phone voice over IP (VoIP) service for customers in the developing world, to be offered through international channel partners.

Telecommunications costs can be exorbitant in developing countries, where consumers can pay as muych as $1 or $2 per minute of telephone service TalkFree plans to keep its prices down by offering bonuses to channel partners who re-sell its services at the lowest rates. Channel partners receive stock and inventory control and TalkFree provides resellers with a privately labeled web presence with real-time credit scoring.

"By focusing on third world markets, we are capitalizing on a pent up demand that, until now, has been overlooked by most VoIP carriers," TalkFree co-founder and president Mike Scheele said in a statement. "We are changing the business paradigm of the PC to Phone market by using the Channel to deliver the highest calling quality combined with real-time account management and PIN generation services."

TalkFree's service is designed to allow customers with low bandwidth connections to take advantage of PC-to-phone calling. It employs the ITU standard G.729 speech codec that provides toll quality audio at 8 Kbps. Users with connections at low as 19.2 kbps can download and use the TalkFree dialer. The dialer activates a customer PIN number and allows the user to create a prepaid calling account ay $10 increments.