VoIP goes wireless

Chucks out the PC in favour of mobiles

By Guy Kewney, 17th July 2006

Innovative Jajah uses PCs for internet phone calls - but only to set up the calls. They then connect two landline or mobile phones together to chat over the IP network. Now, the company has revealed it's going one step further, and will use a Java applet on the phone itself to set up the call.

According to the company's CEO Mark Sullivan, Roman Scharf had one of those light-bulb moments.

"Until March, Jajah was just another PC-based VoIP service like Skype Technologies and Google Talk," wrote Sullivan. "But Scharf says he had a moment of clarity when market research suggested that 97 per cent of computer users still don't use PC-based VOIP services."

The company has developed a Java applet, which allows mobile phone users to connect to Jajah, which then sets up the call without the need for a PC.

Officially, these calls are free.

But blogger Tom Keating said this is bait: "Jajah believes they can "earn" money by providing added value services that the community finds useful and are willing to pay for. Other services like the occasional scheduled call and text messaging, for example, will help Jajah pay the bills. Although I am not sure how scheduled calls and text messaging is enough to offset the costs of free calls being terminated by Jahjah..."

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