Could AOL’s dream of making VoIP a desktop tool for their service really work? I think it has a fair shot if they really understand their customers. Speaking for myself, I am curious to see how they would go about adding this to their list of services.

That was the message America Online sent to the world Tuesday via the VON Spring 2005 conference here, where AOL chief executive Jon Miller officially announced the “AOL Internet Phone Service,” with pricing and availability details to follow in the next 30 days.

“It’s really time” for Voice over IP services, Miller said, during a keynote address to several thousand VON attendees. While admitting that AOL knows that “there’s a lot we don’t know, a lot of hurdles and questions,” Miller was confident that his company’s history of successfully bringing communications technology to the mass markets would continue in the VoIP space.

Specifically, Miller said AOL will look to bring more than just replacement telephone service to VoIP, instead building on its e-mail and instant-messaging expertise to bring more functionality to voice communications.