Jajah, a new, web-based VoIP service, is now offering free international calls between all Jajah registered users.
Using the Jajah Free Global Calling Plan, registered users can call other users for free – regardless of whether they are calling a softphone, IP phone, conventional landline phone or cell phone. Although it is referred to as a “global” plan, free calls can only be made between registered users in the United States; Canada; China; Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, as well as landline calls to and within Australia; UK; Germany; France, Italy and most other European nations.
“Jajah’s Free Global Calling Plan is the further realization of Jajah’s vision of breaking down the barriers to global communication,” said company co-founder Roman Scharf in a
press release. “People have been predicting free phone calls for years, now Jajah is the first to actually make free phone calls a reality. With Jajah, you place a regular call and talk on your phone the way you always have; we simply ask that you dial the call from our website.”
If a registered user is calling a non-registered user, or is calling a country where free calling is not permissible under law, then Jajah’s low rates (usually less than 3 cents a minute) apply. Registration is free, and no pre-payment is required.
So how does Jajah go about preventing flagrant abuses of its free calling service (such as users staying on their phones for days at a time)? For now, the company is depending on its users adhering to a “fair use” policy, which simply asks that they keep their calls within a reasonable amount of minutes. Although the company will probably not be proactively enforcing the policy, it will be monitoring the number of minutes each registered user uses per day “to assure that no single person damages the overall service.” The policy takes the place of complicated user agreements which can be a “turn off” for people considering signing up for a VoIP service.
For a user, Jajah works the same as most other Web-based VoIP services. The user simply enters his/her phone number at
http://www.JAJAH.com, then the desired destination number, and then clicks “call.” The user’s phone will then ring. After the user picks up the receiver, he or she will be instantly connected to the number they dialed on the Web site.
In addition to the free calling plan, Jajah also announced today that it will be launching a series of business offerings, including the “Jajah Business Account.” The service lets companies take advantage of Jajah’s new phone services by enabling them to comprehensively manage multiple users within a single account.
The company also announced a new “Call Me” service which allows the owners of Web sites to include a button which will allow visitors to call “toll free” with a single click. The “click-to-call” feature will no doubt be popular among small business (and home business) owners who have Web sites and who want to reap as many business prospects as possible. With the new toll free button on your Web site, potential customers can contact you directly if they have a question - or business proposition. The company has also made available a series of embedded solutions which allow “direct click through” calling from Microsoft (
News -
Alert) Outlook, Macintosh Address Book and from the popular Mozilla Firefox browser.
Jajah, which was started in 2005,
announced the launch of its PC-to-PC VoIP service in the U.S. in March.
In April, the company
announced that it had received a Series B financing round led by Globespan Capital for expansion of its service throughout Asia.
It is frequently referred to as the fastest growing web-based VoIP service in the world.
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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.
