BT to Provide Free VoIP Calls via WiFi and WiMax

In what has to be good news to Yahoo and possibly Bridgeport Networks, British Telecom has signaled the market that they don't plan to sit idle as "free calling" from the likes of Skype. To accomplish this there needs to be some IMS layer technology, which is where Bridgeport Networks comes in. Both companies were recently at a Fixed Mobile Convergence conference in Toronto last week, so it's kind of interesting that this story breaks.

But one has to wonder if Yahoo with all the partners it has (BT, SBC, Verizon, YahooBB in Japan) is really friend or future foe. Couldn't Yahoo at some point take all that traffic, keep it on their network, connect all the Yahooligans together and bypass their partners when Yahoo user one wants to talk to Yahoo user 2?