New Ways to Call Over the Internet Debut
Mar 27, 12:23 AM EST
By PETER SVENSSON
AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two Internet telephone services debut Monday with unusual business approaches, hoping to stand out in an increasingly crowded market with intense price competition.
Lycos, the Internet portal owned by Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA, is launching a Windows-based program that provides free calls to phones when the user signs up for promotional offers for credit cards or Netflix's DVD service. The software also shows banner ads.

Users who don't sign up for offers will pay 1 cent a minute for domestic calls when they exhaust their initial 100 free minutes.

Some European voice-over-Internet companies, like Voipdiscount, have been providing free calls to countries including the United States. They don't however, provide free U.S. phone numbers for incoming calls, which Lycos does. the rest