Millions of users worldwide have taken advantage of free PC-to-PC calling services such as Skype to cut down on their long distance phone bills. The biggest drawback to using Skype, however, has been the fact that users had to rely on often-clunky microphones and headsets connected to their computers to make use of the service.
Enter Jajah, a new calling service that gives consumers the savings of Skype-like calling without the headset. Users of the service simply go to the company's website (www.jajah.com), enter in the number they wish to call from and the number they wish to call to. Jajah then rings the originating phone (mobile or landline) and after a short pause connects the call to the desired phone number. The callers can then carry on a conversation for free, without paying long distance charges. There is no software to download, either. The process described above is good for a short trial period (around 5 minutes). To continue making calls, both calling parties need to register their phone numbers on the Jajah website. After this is done, however, subsequent calls are free. The only catch appears to be that Jajah asks registered users to abide by a ?Fair Use? policy which encourages users to use 1,000 minutes or less per month of the service.
In test calls we made, the service worked as advertised, both from landline-to-landline phones and mobile-to-mobile phones. The only problems we noticed were a noticeable delay and some clipping of conversations (particularly with calls over mobile phones), but the service is free so we can only complain so much. Jajah claims that the service works for landline and mobile calls to and within the United States, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, and to landline calls to and within Australia, UK, Germany, France, Italy and most other European nations. Since we didn't attempt any international calls, we can't verify this claim. That said, Jajah looks like a nice tool for callers looking to save some money on long distance calling fees.
Source: Telecommunications Research and Action Center. http://www.trac.org
