JAJAH and EMOBILE, the innovative companies of Japan, world’s leading mobile telephony market, have made purely IP-based mobile telephony a reality when the world is still intending to do so.
JAJAH,a global communication company, today announced that, together with EMOBILE, it ha s launched an IP-only mobile device- the EM-ONE. With this device, subscribers in Japan will now be able to make and recieve voice-over-mobile-broadband calls via its JIJAH Mobile software client without the traditional mobile connection.
HSDPA connection, is the data channel used by JAJAH Mobile software to deliver voice services. JAJAH and EMOBILE, in 2007 released an outbound-only IP-mobile service, which attracted thousands of Japanese users and now for EMOBILE subscribers this service is all set to be used not only to make but also to recieve calls.
The EMOBILE subscribers can purchase their own Direct Inward Dialing (DID) for a small monthly fee of $5 approx. The DID number when used in their Sharp EM-ONE Ultra Mobile Device running Windows Mobile 6, which will turn their device into a fully functional device without a cellular connection and the number will operate as any normal phone number.
T-Mobile parent company, Deutsche Telekom, has announced it is helping fund Web calling service provider Jajah. This deal may be the first time a major carrier has supported a VoIP startup service.
With Jajah’s service, users go to the company’s Website and enter their phone number and the number they wish to call. The service calls both numbers, and if the calls are answered, Jajah connects them. Calls placed between registered Jajah users in many countries are free; other calls cost about 3 cents a minute. As part of the investment deal, Jajah will pay reduced fees to connect calls to Deutsche Telekom subscribers.
Deutsche Telekom joined chipmaker Intel in leading the investment round totaling $20 million; specifics of how much each company invested was not released.
According to a company statement, Intel’s investment “will be used to accelerate the development of next-generation communication solutions on a global scale.” Intel may be looking to include VoIP capabilities on its future PC chips.
Jajah has more than 2 million registered users around the world, 40% are in the United States. The company recently moved its headquarters to Mountain View, Calif.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Deutsche Telekom, the parent of T-Mobile, said it has invested in Jajah, an upstart firm that lets customers bypass long-distance fees by connecting their calls over the Internet.
The venture funding arm of Deutsche Telekom joined computer-chip maker Intel in leading an investment round totaling $20 million. Intel’s participation was announced earlier this month. The specific amount invested by each participant in the round was not revealed.
Founded in Austria in 2005, Jajah has emerged as the third model of VoIP.
Other VoIP businesses, like eBay ’s Skype service and Vonage Holdings, generally don’t involve the user’s wired or wireless phone, relying on a broadband connection to carry the call to the outside world.
“We see ourselves as a carrier-friendly company,” said Jajah CEO Trevor Healy.
In contrast to Skype and Vonage-type applications, the existence of Jajah encourages people to keep their fixed lines, he said. In addition, Jajah pays carriers to terminate calls on their networks.
When Jajah is used with mobile phones, the carrier may miss long-distance fees, but at least the user is consuming mobile phone minutes.
For a carrier, “the best company to invest in is one that doesn’t attack their fixed-line business,” Healy said.
As part of the investment deal, Jajah will pay reduced fees to connect calls to Deutsche Telekom subscribers.
The investment by Intel’s venture arm “will be used to accelerate the development of next-generation communication solutions on a global scale,” according to Intel.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
T-Online Venture Fund, managed by T-Venture Holding, the venture capital unit of German incumbent Deutsche Telkom (DT), is making a USD20 million investment, in partnership with Intel Capital, in global voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service provider Jajah. Jajah recently announced that in its first year of operation it had acquired more than two million users from 55 countries.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Deutsche Telekom has become the latest investor in Jajah - joining, among others, Intel and Sequoia Capital - as I reported today.
The [Austrian founders], who have since moved to America to develop their product, welcomed the latest addition to their third round of funding. [Daniel] Mattes said he aimed to follow Skype, the start-up bought by eBay in 2005 for $2.6bn (£1.4bn). “Our goal was to have 1 million users after a year, because that was what Skype had,” he said. “In fact, we had 2 million users in a year. We’re very excited.”
The premise of Jajah is pretty simple: log on to the website, enter your phone number and the one you want to call and it makes the connection over the internet. The point? Well, if you are both JaJah users on landline phones then it’s free. If you are on mobile phones, then it can turn an international call into two local calls - therefore drastically reducing the cost, particularly if you get lots of minutes free in your calling plan.
But, as I point out in the article, Jajah is far from being alone. Aside from Skype’s mobile VoIP offerings, there are a host of other companies trying to work out how to profit from internet calling and the huge mobile phone market - and many of them are developing complex systems which merge instant messaging and presence-based information with traditional internet telephony.
The rub, of course, comes in ease of use: everybody’s still trying to find the killer way to make mobile internet calling as easy as normal dialling. So would you use one of these services? What would convince you to?
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Global VoIP service provider Jajah has received an investment from T-Online Venture Fund. The fund is managed by T-Venture Holding, the corporate venture capital entity of Deutsche Telekom. The investment of the T-Online Venture Fund is part of a USD 20 million USD investment round, co-led by Intel Capital. T-Online Venture Fund is expecting attractive synergies for Deutsche Telekom business units by bringing Jajah web embedded solutions to consumer and business customers. Jajah recently announced it has acquired more than 2 million users from 55 countries in their first year of business by providing next-generation calling solutions, as well as low cost phone connections.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
World’s first Wireless IP-Telephony service launched in Japan by JAJAH and EMOBILE.(Japan)
