While the consumer “landline replacement” VOIP battles continue to wage (the cable companies now control over 70% of that market, and Vonage is still fighting), a number of nimble software-only startups are experimenting with their own services. All of them allow users to call normal, non-VOIP telephones at greatly reduced costs. These savings can be captured whether or not the parties to a phone conversation are using VOIP-enabled phones, since transmissions can jump from PSTN to VOIP and vice-versa at certain junctions. For example, a cellular call to your buddy across the country might start on PSTN, quickly jump to VOIP for long distance travel, and jump back to PSTN near its destination. The key is to use VOIP to strip out some or most of the cost of the call, allowing these startups to offer very low cost calling to consumers. These aren’t free calls, though – any time a normal phone line is used for at least part of the call, particularly the termination, the teleco’s get a toll. Making sense of all of the new VOIP startups is daunting, so we’re categorizing them by use cases. For a comparison of features, prices, and more companies, check out this chart. I’m Cheap and I Have a Computer By far the cheapest way to go with calling is to get a desktop client. VoIP clients on your desktop allow users to make calls from one computer to another across the VoIP network. For an added fee, you can connect to a standard phone on the PSTN phone network for calls to or from your computer. Most of you will know this as Skype-in and Skype-out. The most well known desktop client has been Skype, with over 100 million users. The big guys – Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google – also have their own VoIP desktop clients. Since the VoIP offerings have been built into their IM clients, combined they comprise a potential market of over 340 million subscribers. A younger startup, the Gizmo Project, launched in July of last year. They have a reported 2 million downloads of their application. The application functions like Skype, supporting IM and VoIP calls. The Gizmo Project has the unique distinction of not only offering IM and VoIP calls, but also free calls to the standard phone network if you promote their product to a friend and stay an “active user“. Hullo and Nimbuzz → Read More
Cheapskates that we are, people are always trying to find deals, like, say, being able to make phone calls for free. Yes, that works. Over at the Times, David Pogue bravely looked at several services that offer, in one way or another, free phone calls. Skype we already know, so who cares. But there’s three other services that seem neat: Jajah.com, T-Mobile’s HotSpot@Home and Ooma. Jajah lets you make calls from your regular telephone, but you need to initiate the conversation with a Web browser. Jajah then calls both numbers and connects them, sorta like an operator. → Read More
There’s a growing list of companies lining up to port their application to the iPhone’s Safari browser. Jajah is the first to bring their VOIP client to the new iPhone. iPhone’s standard contract isn’t cheap ($60 – $100/month). If you want to make international calls, you’d have to pay an extra $3.99/month and around 23 cents a minute for a call to the UK. However, Jajah is the first of the VOIP carriers to tailor their site for iPhone users, letting them make the same call to the UK for just 3 cents a minute. Since Jajah makes long distance calls cheaper by bridging two local calls with a VOIP line, you still have to spend some of your plans minutes on the phone call. The program is available to iPhone users through freeyouriphone. There are quite a few other companies launching applications for iPhone’s browser such as iZoho. However, since the iPhones keypad only pops up for web forms, you can’s use your keyboard to edit documents on iZoho. → Read More
Earlier this month we announced VOIP startup Jajah had accepted $20 million in series C investment from Intel Capital. Tonight, Jajah has announced that they’ve added a co-lead to the round: Deutsche Telekom (T-mobile). The initial news of the investment was rushed out by Intel with Deutsche Telekom holding off announcement of their investment until today. Deutsche Telekom’s investment in Jajah marks the first investment of a telco in one of the VoIP startups. Jajah expects to use the money in an upcoming marketing push and to further their business development efforts. Aside from the financial support, the announcement marks a second key relationship. Jajah’s relationship with Deutsche Telekom is expected to come with some advantages, including increased reach into Asia and Latin America and lower calling rates based on DT’s status as a first tier provider (particularly Germany). Jajah had earlier stated their deal with Intel would provide JAJAH access to their community of product dealers, OEM customers and developers, as well as access to Intel’s range of VOIP patents. CEO Trevor Healy says Jajah was an attractive investment for DT because their VoIP service doesn’t require customers to abandon the existing PSTN phone networks that telcos run. Although Jajah announced 2 million users in March, but Healy expects the company to reach 5 million by years end. Currently 40% of Jajah calls originate within the US, with 60% originating internationally. → Read More
VOIP provider JAJAH closes Series C funding of $20 million today, with the lead investment coming from Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel. Previous TechCrunch coverage here. As part of the deal Intel will provide JAJAH access to their community of product dealers, OEM customers and developers, as well as access to Intel’s range of VOIP patents. I spoke to JAJAH CEO Trevor Healy prior to today’s announcement. Although he was unable to shed any light in the particular ways JAJAH would be utilizing Intel’s patents for me, it was evident that it’s a step forward they are pleased with. Healy did explain some of the other benefits of the new deal, aside from the additional $20 million in the bank. Having access to Intel insiders gives JAJAH the ability to better optimize their product for Intel Chips, both current and those planned for future release. The deal supports JAJAH’s emphasis on mobile technology. From existing platforms through to ultra mobile devices that merge computers, mobile and wifi technology, JAJAH wants to be a first choice VOIP provider, and the Intel deal should help them achieve that goal. On Skype the company tries to avoid the apples and apples comparison. As we’ve previously reported, JAJAH’s VOIP service is point to point, bypassing the soft phone of other VOIP providers by connecting calls between the caller and receiver on their respective land lines or cell phones. JAJAH calls itself the 2.0 version of Skype, Voice 2.0. The call I took with Healy was using JAJAH and call quality between Australia and the United States was significantly better than Skype out. It is a good product, Mike Arrington called it a “killer VOIP product” and I’ll probably end up using it myself if they promise not to call it Voice 2.0 again. → Read More
A year after VOIP phone service Jajah launched their service, they’ve announced over 2 million registered users (Up from 1.2 announced in January) and officially announced Trevor Healy as the new CEO. See our consumer VOIP comparison post for an overview of Jajah and some of its competitors. Jajah is a VOIP service that gives you lower long distance rates by bridging standard phone lines with a cheaper VOIP alternative. You can place Jajah calls by clicking on your contacts through their website (desktop and mobile), Symbian client, various browswer plugins, or Google Gadget. You can try out a one time call by going to Jajah and typing in you and your contacts info. When you initiate a call by clicking on a contact, Jajah calls back your phone and your contact’s phones. The call is then routed through your phone network (land or mobile), to Jajah’s servers, and then back out through your contact’s phone. Similar to Jaxtr and Jangl you can keep your number private. Call rates vary, but are in the 2.8 to 3.2 cent range and remain free between Jajah users. The founder and former CEO Roman Scharf has stressed the company’s obsession with quality several times. They have over 250 telecom engines in over 45 countries worldwide and chose the best data carriers for their call paths in real time. They’ve done this on a relatively tighter budget ($8 million) than the competition to boot. Recently their strategy has been focused around large business deals. Currently Dell, Logitech, and Symbian use their service, they were recently incorporated with Joyent, and are working on an anonymous call deal with a large dating site (Jangl has a deal with Match.com). → Read More
Without a doubt, the most popular classified ads site on the Internet is Craigslist. The simple, utilitarian site is a shining example of how the p2p Web can work, and one of the secrets to its success is the anonymization of its users by email forwarding and masking. Many people who wouldn’t want their real email addresses published can use an anonymous, temporary @cragislist.org address to keep things private while maintaining email as a valid form of commercial communication. → Read More
Tonight, Talkster launched a beta of a new presence-based communication platform in the VoIP market, with a focus on the enterprise and aim to connect callers by alias regardless of their device. Talkster is similar to services like Jajah, Rebtel, Hullo, ConnectMeAnywhere, and Fring in that it uses VOIP to make cheap (currently free) long distance phone calls. But those services are highly targeted towards the consumer market, whereas Talkster is not. CEO James Wanless calls the consumer VoIP market a “race to the bottom of rates.” Talkster doesn’t want to play that game. Talkster has its sight set on the enterprise. Talkster enables calls between and across phones and PCs, with the necessary software bridge. Unlike Jajah and Hullo, however, Talkster doesn’t require a download and works via the Web through your mobile phone and desktop browsers. This makes it more widely available than Jajah’s Symbian based client. Talkster will have a Java client in 2007. Currently, the system connects mobile phones, VoIM (voice over IM), VOIP phones, and PSTN Phones, with the potential to connect to any service that speaks SIP. You can also use Talkster to place free mobile calls to virtually any phone or buddies on MSN, Google Talk, and Gizmo. After registering for the service online, you have the tedious but necessary task of inputing your contacts’ alias, email address (for VoIM), and phone numbers. VoIM contacts must accept your invitation to be included in Talkster. When you log your mobile phone into m.talkster.com, you are greeted with a list of contacts’ VoIM online/offline status and can either connect to the contact over VoIM or be automatically forwarded to their phone number of choice. In the case of a long distance call, Talkster acts as a VOIP bridge between the two callers. When making local calls, Talkster steps out of the way and just connects directly. If you don’t want to place a call on the PC you are working on, Talkster has call-in or call-back options that lets you place a call through the computer, but connect using the phone. The option has definite cost benefits, depending on your mobile plan. Talkster’s device agnostic model is reminiscent of text based JumpChat and Swarmteams, but incorporating phone calls makes the model much more powerful. The Web interface was a sacrifice but it will at least get Talkster in front of the maximum number of people. → Read More
VOIP company Jajah just announced an exceptional new consumer service that will let many cell phone users access Jajah’s very low calling rates through their cell phone (and without using data services). Ok, it’s true. When I wrote about the woeful state of the VOIP market last week I knew full well that Jajah was preparing to launch a killer new product this evening (and Shel Israel called me on it). I think that post was good background material to better understand the problems with current VOIP options and the importance of what Jajah just launched. Before today it was difficult for users of normal phones to access VOIP services directly and get cheaper rates on phone calls. They almost always had to be in front of a computer to initiate a call, or go through complicated call, then hang up and call back procedures. Jajah’s New Mobile Phone Service Jajah’s new mobile service suffers from none of the “detail issues” that I bring up in the post last week. I walk through how the new service works below, but the end result is that you can set your phone to use Jajah for certain types of calls (such as international calls) instead of your normal carrier. From the caller and receiver’s perspective the call transaction is seemless. A call is made normally, and received normally. The only work is getting it set up. To use the new service you must be a registered Jajah user. You must have a supported cell phone (see this page to determine if you have a supported cell phone) – Jajah currently supports phones with the symbian operating system…other phones, including Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Treo, will come later this year. Jajah sends a MMS message to your phone. Once you confirm the message a Java application is downloaded to the phone and can be configured by the user. Once configured, the Jajah software handles certain types of calls made from the phone, bypassing the carrier entirely. When you place a call, Jajah routes the call to its own local number, moves the call over VOIP to the destination and calls the recipient via a local number where they are located. Jajah founder Roman Scharf says that the carriers can’t block what they are doing because they do not use the data services included with many newer phones. Instead, they simply re-route the call → Read More
A bunch of VOIP services have launched to help people make cheaper calls from normal phones. None of them are compelling for the mass market. VOIP is great when you initiate calls from VOIP phones or software (Skype, Vonage, etc.). These VOIP networks can call other VOIP phones, or patch into the normal telephone networks to make relatively inexpensive calls. Vonage long ago replaced my normal telephone service, and an increasing number of people are using VOIP solutions instead of a normal telephone. But a new crop of companies have a launched that are trying to let people make free or cheap VOIP calls from a normal POTS (plain old telephone service) phone (often a cell phone) to another POTS phone. If someone gets it right, there’s a huge market out there to destroy. The problem is that no one has gotten it right. And the mass market won’t adopt these services until they are dead simple to use. These services generally take one of two approaches to allow people to make VOIP calls. One approach is to tell the service what number you are calling from and what number you would like to call. The service then calls both parties and connects them. The second approach is to assign special phone numbers to use instead of the normal phone number. These special numbers are controlled by the VOIP service and bypass the POTS system for the most expensive parts of the call. Neither approach allows people to make quick calls on the fly to someone. Both require multiple steps to make a call, usually involving the use of a website as well (meaning you have to be at a computer or try to access the services via a mobile browser). Here are a few that we’ve been tracking: Jajah: Go to the website, tell it your phone number and the number you want to call, and a call is initiated to both phones. Call rates are very cheap, sometimes free. But you have to be at your computer to use it, and have a billing relationship with jajah if you are making non-free calls. They have some big news coming out this week, however, that will be worth noting. Rebtel: We first covered Rebtel here. They just announced a whopping $20 million in venture funding. Rebtel has an extremely confusing method for making calls. The basic fee is $1 → Read More
The VOIP wars are already crowded with more competitors than can possibly build a business. Well capitalized players like Vonage and Skype battle with nimble startups like Gizmo and Jajah in a race for relevance. All have their own twists on the idea of cheap or free calls using the internet. The most recent entrant, Hullo, is a worthy addition to the crowd. Hullo is most like Jajah, with a few notable differences. Jajah allows easy phone-to-phone calls from their website. It has a somewhat complicated pricing structure, but the important thing to know is that it is free or damn close to free for most calls in the US and Europe. To make a call, you type in your phone number and the phone number you are calling. A moment later your phone rings. Pick it up and the person you are calling is ringing on the other end. From that point on it’s a normal phone call. Jajah generally requires you to initiate calls from their website, although they do have an Outlook plugin, firefox extension and Mac address book plugin as well to ease the process of calling. Simple, straightforward, cheap. Hullo is a little different. The actual process of having a call is the same as Jajah – first your phone rings, then the person calling you. But as Alec Saunders notes in his review, it does a lot more, too. First of all, it’s impossible to spend money on the service, at least for now. Everything is free. If you compare closely to Jahah, that isn’t saying much because Hullo only works in North America and Jajah is free in that market. But there are no complicated pricing plans to figure out before making a call. Hullo is a client-based application that looks like an instant message box. It runs separately from the browser (and unfortunately is only available for Windows machines). But where Hullo really shines is in the added features. You can make a call from any normal phone or directly from your computer with speakers/headset and a microphone. You can also do group calling by dragging contacts into the call or adding a new phone number. If you need to switch phones, you can drop off the call and add your other number. Hullo is also useful as a call forwarding device. They issue every user an extension on a normal phone → Read More
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