Lycos today made a grand entry in the Internet telephony (VoIP) market with the launch of Lycos Phone - a software dialer that also has a Media player for playing streaming video and MP3 music.

Lycos is giving a free US telephone number to all Lycos Phone users. Other competitors like Yahoo and Skype charge upto $36 per year for similar service.

You can use the Lycos Phone if you are not residing in America. So your business card can have a US contact number irrespective of the country where you are located.

Unlike Skype or Yahoo, Lycos Phone provides free voice calls to landline or mobile phones when the user signs up for offers for credit cards or Netflix's DVD service.

Lycos Phone users who don't accept the offers will pay 1 cent a minute for domestic calls when they exhaust their initial 100 free minutes. Lycos Phone will feature banner ads within the phone interface.

Lycos Phone plans to add some new exclusive features like:

1. Free Voice Mail to e mail
2. Use your Lycos Phone US number to receive fax to your e mail from any part of the world.
3. Free video on demand and matured pay per view content

Lycos Phone uses technology from Axill Europe which has agreed to not license Globe7 to any other major portal, including Yahoo, Google, MSN and AOL.

Download Lycos Phone 1.0

Official Website: Lycos Phone