There’s a new “free” VoIP telephone service called JAJAH. It’s free like Skype is free. You only have to pay a fee if there’s a network fee of some kind involved in the call. With Skype that’s the SkypeOut charge that you pay if you ring a handset. JAJAH’s differentiating point is the way it works. With JAJAH you don’t have to download anything. (You can but you don’t have to). You just register on the JAJAH web site and specify your actual phone numbers (both fixed line and mobile) that you want JAJAH to use. When you want to make a call, you just log on and enter the phone number you want to call (or pick it from your list) and JAJAH does the rest. It phones both of you.

So what does that mean?

Well first of all, it means you don’t have to have a headset attached to your PC (or Mac). The call goes directly phone to phone, with VoIP happening in between. Secondly it means that you only have to pay the incoming call fees, which are generally low and can be zero. (JAJAH tells you the call rate when you call).

Used in this way, JAJAH doesn’t require a broadband connection. It will work fine on a dial-up line, but it claims to work fine over dial-up anyway, even with a PC-to-PC call. Reportedly, JAJAH uses a higher quality codec (a codec is a voice to digital coder/decoder) than Skype, delivering higher quality on lower bandwidth. As it happens it can also use the Skype codec, which means that you can phone Skype users for nothing if it’s a PC-to-PC call.

To do PC-to-PC calls, you need to download the JAJAH Webphone. This gives you:

  1. Chat, including SMS capability
  2. Real-time text message translation. ( English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian and French)
  3. Call forwardiing
  4. Conference calls
  5. Skype search capability
  6. Ringtones and skins (give me a break)
  7. Voicemail
  8. Videophone

Some of this is clearly first release (JAJAH only launched in February) so the software is likely to improve—I’ve read some negative comments about the video aspects of the interface. The main point of JAJAH, though, is that it integrates well with the phones you already use. This is why it could challenge Skype or at least take a piece of the Skype market.

Incidentally, Vodafone in Germany has suggested that it may refuse to accept calls from some VoIP services (starting mid-2007)—I think Vodafone Germany is targeting Skype, but I guess JAJAH would also qualify for the same treatment. Such strategy would not put Skype, JAJAH, et al out of business. It’s too late for that. Too many users. Also the free VoIP companies could respond in kind, which would surely disrupt everything.

A Telco trade war may be brewing out there.

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