Cheap mobile calls via net

Source: economictimes.com

So you thought VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) was irritating? First, you’d have to download special software on your PC, get used to the headset , and then of course you'd have to be around your PC to make calls. It would be better to use your cellphone and pay a few rupees extra, right? Wrong, because now you can make free calls from your desk or mobile phone—with no software downloads, special headsets, or even a broadband internet connection. All thanks to a recently launched service by a company called Jajah (www.jajah.com).

How does it work

Let’s say you are here in India and want to speak to your project head in San Jose (US). You do nothing more than create your account on Jajah .com. Once that's done, enter your mobile number and that of your project head at Jajah.com and simply click the ‘Call’ button. First Jajah will make a connection to your phone. So you pick up the call when your mobile rings, and a voice (heavily accented currently, mind you) will explain that Jajah is connecting the call.

Next, the phone in San Jose will ring and your project head picks up the call, and the two of you can speak for a price as low as Rs 3 per minute. They currently have similar discount rates for all over the world. In fact, calls to the US and Europe will soon be made free of cost for users, claims the company.

What are they doing right

What seems to be working for Jajah world wide is the fact that they have entered into deals with many telecoms for access to cheap local ‘lastmile ’ connections. That means that only the long-distance part of the call goes over the internet. So, say you are a Hutch customer here in India. The last bit of your call will come through on your Hutch network. This is a big advantage, simply because calls received over regular phones are generally of good voice qualityunlike other VoIP service providers such as Skype where you typically receive calls over a computer where the call quality can suffer.

Getting rid of the computer

Interestingly this way Jajah also avoids firewall troubles that many other VOIP services are riddled with, as their calls are not solely over the internet . Ultimately, Jajah claims that they will take the computer completely out of the picture, because most people will be able to access the internet via their phone. So Jajah customers won’t even need a computer to input the initial call—they would do it direct from their cellphone.

Jajah also comes with special tools customised for companies and individuals. For instance, there's a tool that integrates with Outlook as well as your browser and lets you dial numbers from within the application itself. They also let you schedule calls in advance, which means that once you set up your call at a particular time, you needn’t be anywhere near the computer—the service will connect automatically at the designated time.

Companies have already started reaping the benefits for this service. Public relations firm 20:20 Media, for instance, has set up accounts for all its employees using this service. “We have saved about 60% on our calls using Jajah. And these days we never miss call timings thanks to Jajah's auto dialling facility,” says a spokesperson at 20:20 Media, Delhi.