IP is the engine for innovation in today’s telecom landscape, and VoIP applications continue to emerge. The latest news comes from Jajah, who recently announced PC-less VoIP calling capability. Jajah is one of many pure play VoIP start-ups that hope to replicate the eBay funded jackpot won by Skype when they purchased them for over $3 billion. Many of these start ups have taken a page from Skype for very cheap (or free) VoIP calls, but are also pushing the innovation envelope. Jangl is another. They focus on providing VoIP powered applications in the web 2.0 world of social networking. Jangl’s “special sauce” is using VoIP and email to allow for anonymous calling. Jajah and Jangl also recently announced a deal where Jangl traffic can be terminated on Jajah’s 120 country network footprint.
Jajah’s latest application, branded Jajah Direct, allows customers to make a VoIP call without the need for a computer. The originating caller dials a local number, and like in a calling card scenario, enters their desired number to call. The Jajah platform then text messages a unique local telephone number. When the originating caller calls the number sent via text message, they are connected with the original desired number. The idea is local service rates for long distance calls. Jajah is marketing the service as a cheaper way to do international calling. Applications like these offered by Jajah and Jangl will continue to flourish, as these companies chase the eBay/Skype type payday. Most will probably die on the vine, but some will prevail. Those that do will challenge service providers of all types to continue to embrace and leverage innovation, or risk losing their competitiveness in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
Seems like eBay is regretting their Skype buy. Didn’t they just write off half the deal or something like that. These guys are innovative, just hard to see true business value/case with some of the applications. Their cool to do, but where’s the revenue (remember “where’s the beef?”)?