Look Ma, No VoIP Software Or Handset

If you think VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is too complicated and don’t want to download software or buy a new handset, try Jajah. Red Herring magazine chose Jajah as part of their 2006 annual Red Herring 100 North America award as a “top private North American software company”.

Their concept is simple. Jajah offers instant, easy-to-use VoIP - no software downloads, and no special headsets or handsets. [via VoIP Central] The service works by brokering a call between two POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) phones, via a page on their website where you enter your phone number and the destination number. Jajah’s system then calls you on your landline. When you pick up, the destination phone rings, and you can start talking when your friend answers.

Calls between US and Canadian numbers are as little as $0.0184 per minute. Some calls are as low as $0.017/m. They currently have a free trial good for a 5-minute call between you and a friend pretty much anywhere in the world that their coverage extends to. (No calls to mobile phones, except in the US.)

As Red Herring points out, there is a flaw in the design (at least for the trial) that could result in mischief. What would really be interesting is for them to extend service to smartphones and smart PDAs so that customers could initiate the call using their mobile web browser, and the source phone number could be validated.

Tags: technobabble, techno babble, VoIP, Jajah