Thursday, February 26, 2009

Jajah VoIP

The next VoIP service provider that I would like to introduce is Jajah Web, founded by Roman Scharf and Danile Mattes of Austria in 2005. Jajah contrasts to other VoIP services in that calls can be placed via the user’s PC through the internet to conventional landline or mobile telephones without having to download any software. In this way, Jajah can offer very competitive prices that can be lower than most other standard telephony providers. Free calls can be placed from Jajah user to Jajah user within the USA, Canada, much of Asia, most of Europe and to many other countries throughout the world.

In 2007, Jajah Direct was introduced to the service package, enabling users to place calls without having to use a computer. By using any phone, Jajah users can make long-distance or global calls by first dialling a local number which are then assigned to the long-distance / international number. However, the main disadvantage with Jajah Direct is that it is not possible to place free calls to other Jajah users.

Jajah finances its services by asking customers to pay at least once every six weeks a minimum of $10 in order to retain the free calls option. Those chargeable calls will of course be deducted from the credit paid in advance. If customers choose not to pay, the free calls option becomes invalid and Jajah charges the normal rates accordingly.

For more pricing and geographical information, please see Jajah free calls.


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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

AIM Call Out

I would like to do a series of posts covering the list of VoIP Services listed in my last post. I will begin today with AIM Call Out, but I will not cover all of them in alphabetical order.

AIM Call Out is (still) a computer to computer, PC phone / phone to PC service provided by AOL to its AOL Instant Messenger users. However, the service will be discontinued on March 25, 2009. As yet, there is no information on a replacement for this service. If any of my readers has any information on this, please don’t hesitate to contact me via comment.

For further information, please see: http://voice.aol.com/


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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

VoIP Telephony

I would like to post some information about one of my sponsors … But first, being that this sponsor is in the VoIP business, let me first define what VoIP is and what it’s all about.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the general term used for modern technology allowing voice calls to be placed via a broadband Internet connection (sometimes called IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband – VoBB, broadband telephony or broadband phone). The VoIP systems are usually connected with and combined to the classic switched analog telephone networks which make it possible to place calls to all parts of the world.

I could go into the nitty gritty about how this all works, but that is not the purpose of this post. My goal is to simply draw your attention to the terminology used and to help give my readers a better understanding of what it is all about.

The commercial development began in 2004, introducing mass-market providers allowing a variety of services to both commercial and domestic users. In those countries where the VoIP technology is particularly well developed, like the USA, Canada, UK, most of Europe and much of Asia, so-called flat rates are offered to users to allow for an unlimited length and frequency of calls, usually within the respective country.

The variety of features within the providers’ service plan varies considerably however. Some may only allow free calls to be placed to other subscribers of the same service or free calls to all landline numbers within the country, or may include free calls to one or more out-of-country destinations – and yet others might include one or more of the cooperating (or own) mobile phone networks.

In any case, VoIP telephony generally requires either a computer or a special VoIP phone or a combination of both, usually connected to an adapter or router of some kind. Placing free calls via computer usually requires the downloading of some kind of software to enable calls via headphones and microphone. With the use of a router, the conventional telephones are simply connected directly to the router and the router is then connected to the incoming phone line. Typically, more than one phone can be connected to the router at the same time, but this may vary from router to router and the service providers in the respective countries. At the end of this post, I will list out the more widely known providers as well as some of the more unknown ones. Of course, I would be more than happy to include any of your suggestions into the list.

There are some disadvantages to using VoIP services however. Some do not work during power outages being that they are generally connected to a computer and / or router through its own power supply (Conventional telephones have their own power source through the telephone jack). Most importantly, most VoIP providers cannot connect calls to emergency or certain service numbers. Another major disadvantage is caused through the inherently unreliable IP network. Due to the ever-increasing amount of data congestion in any given bandwidth network, the conversation can become broken up into incoherent snippets, disrupted by heavy static or in severe cases, even become completely disconnected.

All in all however, free and unlimited calls via VoIP are becoming increasingly safer and reliable with the advancement and improvement of its technology. The ever-increasing demand for better service and the growing availability of these services will become progressively interesting for commercial and domestic users alike.

Provider

Operating countries

Apptix

USA

Arcor

Germany

AT&T CallVantage


BabyTEL

USA and Canada

Betamax

Germany

Blue Ridge Communications


BlueFace

Ireland / UK

BroadVoice


BT Group


Cable & Wireless


CallingAmerica

USA, Canada

Charter Communications


Clearwire


Comcast Digital Voice


Covad


Cox Communications


Deltathree


Engin

Australia

Entanet

UK

FaktorTel

Australia

Free

France

Freshtel

Australia

Gizmo5


GooberCall

Worldwide, geographically limited

Jajah

Worldwide, geographically limited

Lingo (Primus)

USA, Australia

magicJack


Mediacom


Modern Telegraph


Net2Phone


ooma

USA

Packet8 (8x8)


PhoneGnome


Primus Canada


Rigatta

Latvia

Qwest Communications


Shaw Communications


Sipgate

Germany, Austria, UK

Skype


Speakeasy


Suddenlink Communications


TeamSpeak


Telewest Business


Tesco

UK

Time Warner


Truphone

Worldwide, but inbound calls only in UK & USA

Vbuzzer

US, Canada

Verizon VoiceWing


Vocalocity


Vocaltone Networks

Australia, Canada, USA, France, UK

VoicePulse


Voipfone

UK

VoIP User


Vonage

US, UK, Canada

Voxbone


Vyke


Wengo


Windows Live Call


WOW!


Yahoo! Voice




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