Jajah Announces Free Telephone Service

Internet phone company Jajah today announced that it will offer free Internet-based telephone calls to registered users in select countries.

To use the Jajah service, you'll need to register with at least one existing phone number of your own and then enter a phone number to dial on the Jajah Web site. Jajah uses its VoIP infrastructure to make the call by ringing your number first and then connecting to the specified number.

The new Free Global Calling Plan will place free calls when both you and the person you want to call are registered with Jajah and are using a land line or mobile phone within the United States, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Taiwan. Calls are also free to and within a landline in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and most other European nations. Other calls, including those placed to nonregistered users, are charged per minute.

No Hard Limit for Calls

The company has not set a hard limit for the number of free calls that can be placed. Its "fair use" policy will likely allow one hour of calls per day, according to a spokesperson. You'll still use cell phone minutes if you connect with a mobile phone, but all calls to both land lines and cell phones will be considered local.

In addition to the free consumer calls, Jajah announced a new add-on for the Mac OS X Address Book and a tie-in to the Plaxo toolbar for Microsoft Outlook that will let you call contact numbers from within those programs. The company previously released a Firefox plug-in with similar functionality.

According to a spokesperson, Jajah intends to keep its consumer-focused plan free and to generate revenue through new business offerings. The company announced one such new service today, a "Call Me" button businesses can add to their Web sites. Customers can place a call by clicking the button and entering their own phone number, with the charge going to the company.

Jajah's announcement follows a free offering from Skype, which in May announced that calls made by U.S. users of the "softphone" program to landlines and cell phones within the United States would be free until the end of the year.