By Staff
28-03-2006 02:50 PM
Related: Media Technology Telecoms.

Lycos has launched a new Internet telephony service in the US, as the media portal attempts to grab slice of the growing VoIP market. The Lycos Phone service is powered by technology firm Globe7, and will compete with the likes of ebay-owned Skype, Google, Yahoo and Vonage.

With Lycos Phone, users can make free calls from PC to PC, as well as make free PC to PC video calls and receive unlimited free incoming calls from any landline or mobile phone, from around the world.
Users also receive 100 free minutes of PC to landline and PC to mobile phone calls, and can earn additional free minutes through various promotional offers with Lycos Phone.

The VoIP system also includes multimedia support for music and video on demand for both professional and independent content, with free video on demand access to more than 300 movie trailers, business news, world sports and more, allowing users to search the web while chatting with friends.

Additionally, unlike Skype and Yahoo, Lycos Phone offers a free US phone number, free fax and free voicemail to email.

Alfred Tolle, CEO of Lycos, said: ?This partnership with Globe7 allows Lycos to team with a best-of-breed global platform, leveraging Globe7?s real-time communications infrastructure to provide other innovative services like Internet Protocol television.?

Currently, Globe7 supports Windows 2000 and XP. Future enhancements will support Linux, Mac OS, Palm OS and Pocket PC.