Lycos, Jajah Launch New VoIP Offerings (UPDATED)

This story originally incorrectly reported that Lycos is owned by Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA.  Lycos was purchased by Daum Communications in 2004, according to the Associated Press.

On Monday, Lycos, the Web portal owned by South Korea’s Daum Communications, and Austria-based Jajah launched two separate low-cost voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services, intending to make their marks in the rapidly expanding VoIP space, the Associated Press reports via the New York Post.

Lycos has launched a Windows-based program that enables users to place calls free of charge when they sign up for advertising offers for credit cards or Netflix DVD rental services, according to the AP. Any person who chooses not to sign up for promotional services can pay 1 cent per minute for domestic calls, and users will receive 100 free minutes, the AP reports.

Lycos Phone also provides users with movie previews, computer-to-computer video messaging and text messaging, according to the AP.

A number of European companies already offer free VoIP to various countries, including the United States, but none have provided free U.S. phone numbers for incoming calls, as the Lycos Phone does, the AP reports.

The Jajah offering breaks phone calls down into data packets, like an e-mail message, and when they reach their recipients, the calls are reassembled into sound, according to the AP. A trial version of the Jajah service has been available on the company’s website since early February, the AP reports.

To place calls with the Jajah product, users need only visit the company’s site and enter two phone numbers—the line on which they want to place the call and the line to which they wish to be connected, according to the AP. Jajah then calls the user and once a connection is established, it dials the recipient, the AP reports.

Jajah’s service requires no special hardware, like a microphone, and it’s compatible with operating systems other than Microsoft Windows, according to the AP.

Customers of Jajah’s service will pay roughly 1.7 cents per minute for domestic calls and roughly 1.9 cents per minute for calls from the United States to France, the AP reports.

For related news coverage, read China to Block Paid VoIP Calls for 2 Years, Yahoo to Launch IM Phone in the U.S. and Skype Offers Web Calls Minus PC Connection.

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