IP Democracy: Jajah's Bold Mobile Phone Move

Business Week Online’s Olga Kharif has this piece about a new move by VoIP provider Jajah that will be announced today. Jajah is unveiling Jajah Mobile that will allow callers who have any one of up to 80 mobile phone models to make free phone calls to other Jajah members by downloading a software plug-in. Jajah claims it will soon cover all cell phone models.

But the real news is that Jajah is offering very low cost international phone calls (as low as $.02/minute) to its members, a move that could ratchet up international calling from cell phones. Another market-changer: Jajah only chews up users’ incoming call minutes — it doesn’t require the use of outgoing minutes. Most mobile phone users opt for contracts that allow for unlimited incoming calls but cap the minutes for outgoing calls.

But, as Jon Arnold notes in the article, Jajah has only one million registered users, so some costs will kick in for contacting non-registered users. The freebie and low-cost element of the deal is dependent on calling other Jajah users. But with a downloadable software plug-in, how hard could it be for a user to let friends know they should do the same thing?

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on September 26, 2006 8:54 AM to IP Democracy