Lycos and Jajah join crowded VoIP market

New services from Lycos and Jajah hope to outdo other IP phone offerings by using different models

The already crowded internet telephony market has gained another pair of players with the launch of services from Lycos and Jajah. 

David Ferris, senior analyst at Ferris Research, suggested that, despite the number of established players, new operators still have a chance to make a mark. 

"It is still early days, and even Skype only has a maximum of eight million users on at any time," he said. 

The two new services hope to outdo other IP phone offerings by using different models to attract customers.

Jajah is offering a simple way for users to communicate. A user enters their own phone number and the one they want to call on Jajah's website.

The system then phones the user and waits for them to pickup before dialling the second number. If the second number is answered the call is connected. Calls within the US are charged at 1.7 cents per minute.

Lycos, meanwhile, which is owned by Spain's Telefonica, is launching a service providing free calls to phones in exchange for signing up to offers connected to the service and viewing banner adverts.

Alternatively, users get 100 free minutes to start with and can pay one cent per minute for US domestic calls after that. The application also includes PC-to-PC video calling and text messaging.

Ferris believes that the successful IP telephony companies will be those that tempt the most users.

"Long term, I would expect the vast majority of VoIP services to come from volume players. They can have lower prices and provide the best functionality," he said.