Telefonica-owned O2 UK, the largest mobile operator in the country with over 20 million customers, is rolling out ‘International Favorites’, a new low cost international calling service with the aim to double its market share of overseas calls.
Unsurprisingly, it’s powered by Jajah, the VoIP company its parent Telefonica Europe purchased last December for 145 million Euros. A similar service was also launched by O2 Germany in July.
The Jajah-powered solution lets O2 customers dial a local number to call friends and family abroad. O2 International Favorites customers can also give their international friends and family a local number, in over 40 countries, to call back to the UK, which is pretty neat and obviously cuts the cost of ‘calling home’ from a mobile phone dramatically since those calls can be included in any bundled minutes.
In an attempt to achieve that doubling of market share, International Favorites will be given a major marketing and advertising push, a “first” for an IP calling solution, claims O2.
Furthermore, Telefonica says that its Jajah-powered offering has been “extremely successful” in Germany. We’ll be watching the UK launch closely.