Review: Jajah VoIP service

JaJah is a VoIP service that allows you to make free calls from your landline to another landline.

The way it works isn’t easily explained, but you basically go online and register your number, then get your contact to register their number in a similar fashion.

Once you’re both registered, you click the Call This Landline Number button within the JaJah application. After a short pause, your phone will ring and an automated voice will ask you to wait while you’re connected to the other person. Once they answer their phone, you can talk for free.

In practice the service works extremely well. Landline to landline calls in the UK had no perceivable time delay and audio quality was good, although we could sometimes tell it was a low-bit-rate digital call.

Even better, if you want to call a landline number in a different country, you can do it free or very cheaply (see JaJah’s site for rates). Registered users within USA, Canada, China, Singapore, Hong Kong Taiwan or Taiwan can talk for free to and from any combination of landline and mobile phones.

Users in most of Europe can ring from landlines to landlines for free and to and from mobiles for 11.3p per minute. Free calls can only be made from active accounts, which are labelled inactive after two weeks of non-usage.

The biggest cost incurred is the amount a mobile operator takes for receiving a call abroad; typically 30p, but soon limited to 11p per minute by EU legislation.

We called a French mobile phone for 11.3p per minute from a landline and the time delay was an unbearable two to three seconds. We then tried calling a British mobile abroad in France and, surprisingly, there was no time delay and call quality was excellent. During a UK mobile to UK mobile call we noticed a very slight time delay and hissing noise.

The fair use policy feels a little tight when it comes to free calls. JaJah allows for 1,000 minutes per month, five hours a week or one hour a day and will prevent further calls once any of these limits has been reached.

The next phase for JaJah is an exciting one - you will be able to call for free without even using a computer to connect two landlines. All you'll have to do is text JaJah the number you want to call and the same process as with landlines will follow (your phone rings, your contact’s phone rings, you talk for free).

As it stands, JaJah has some big advantages over more established VoIP services such as Skype. It allows you to use your own phone instead of an awkward Skype USB phone or headset and you don't have to install any software. Instead, all you have to do is head to the JaJah website to set up a call. Many calls are free, and those that aren't are a bargain.

Once computers are taken out of the equation, the mobile phone service has the potential to be a real hit.

Also consider:
Skype 
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Netgear SPH101
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