Jajah.com: free phone-to-phone calls between many countries (at time of posting)

First published on July 28, 2006

First of all, let me state that with all of the sites that I mention, unless they are my own silly creations, I am receiving nothing for the free plugs.

Phone call!

Anyway, so the great news from Skype earlier this year was that it was offering free PC-to-phone calls within North America until the end of the year. However, this rather new site called Jajah takes the whole PC/phone convenience thing one step further. You need your computer only to initiate the call. It works like this:

1) Register your phone number
2) Enter the number you wish to call on the Jajah website
3) Your phone rings (not your computer) and you pick up
4) Your friend’s phone rings

Boom — phone-to-phone calls, initiated at the Jajah website. Check their Free Calls FAQ Page to make sure they’re not messing with us. They do state, however, that there really is “no catch”. I’m interested to see what will become of this Jajah…

Also, make sure you check the rate page to make sure that your call is free (remember, it’s between many countries that it’s free, but not all!).

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August 8th, 2006 update: so, what’s up with this… yet another startup offering a free PC-to-phone service (although not phone-to-phone like Jajah). They call themselves Gizmo, and work very similarly to Skype.

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January 28th, 2007 update: a few months on Jajah, a few more friends convinced, many dollars saved! Just make sure to keep your account “active” by making a free call at least once a week!

This entry is filed under Computer Stuff, Consumerism, Telephony and written by Peter Keung. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

23 Responses to “Jajah.com: free phone-to-phone calls between many countries (at time of posting)”

October 16th, 2006 at 1:37 am
Cathy says:

Hey PK! One of the interns just mentioned jajah to me before I left for VN. It’s too bad that these services aren’t yet offered in Vietnam…would’ve saved me $450 you know….

Anyway, I think your type of blog is even better than a personal one.

ttyl ok
November 7th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Virgie says:

this is one big help to us oversees contract worker who wish to save money for our family…God bless
November 7th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Virgie says:

its exciting to be part of your website!
November 7th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Virgie says:

Hi Peter youll be helping lots of people from here…and dont you worry God sees everything and he will double your reward in heaven…
January 26th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Leah’s Ponderwonderments » Jajah – The answer to your calls says:

[...] This is how it works: I signed up for an account, and it’ll cost me a low fee (like 3.1 cents per minute to call a number in Canada); however, if the number I’m calling is also a jajah member (free to sign-up) the call is FREE!!!! I actually learned about this from Peter’s Useful Crap but never got around to actually figuring it out. When you want to make a call, you simply enter your number and the number you want to call onto the website. Your phone will ring within a couple of seconds – answer it and then it’ll phone your friend. You can talk to your friend over the phone (not through a microphone on the computer). For people like me, who are really not that knowledgeable about computers, technology and all the endless possibilities out there, this is an easy option. [...]
February 5th, 2007 at 9:13 am
tota says:

thank you
February 5th, 2007 at 9:15 am
tota says:

how are you?
February 16th, 2007 at 6:59 am
Nikola says:

is this real???
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:38 am
haron says:

no
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 am
haron says:

no non
March 2nd, 2007 at 10:44 am
haron says:

how it works?
March 5th, 2007 at 5:08 am
Les says:

Hi,
I have tried out recently a similar, “phone-to-phone” offerings of FreeCall, but was dissapointed to see a â‚¬0,05 charge for a non existent “call” attept:
They don’t mention “CONNECTION FEE” anywhere on the FreeCall web site, (apart from criticizing Skype for that) and besides there were no “connection” at all(!) as it was just ringing but no one has picked up my call, (from Sweden to Germany, which I have terminated after a few ring signal) – What is this crap?!”
I have queried this with FreeCall but they have not yet responded..

Has anyone an explanation or similar experience?
April 15th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Horst Brack says:

The same thing happened to me and it seems to be a new thing they found to generate some extra cash. Their support told me if you don’t hang up after 4-6 rings then you will be directed to a “scheduled call service” where you can have this calll being retried again later. But – this redirection costs you money, if you use the service or not. Being mentioned nowhere on their website I doubt if this is even legal.
In the jajah forum you will learn that they are simply saying that this “feature” will stay.
To me it’s a connection fee through the back door. Sad. Another good idea going down the drain.
September 4th, 2007 at 6:03 am
sandeep says:

very good service
September 6th, 2007 at 3:33 am
adam says:

If you use Jajah, you’ll love www.zoippe.com
September 9th, 2007 at 2:03 am
jean says:

i thought this is too good to be true the jajah free phone to phone call if both are members but itried it and the test call is and the next try i call they said in the philippines its not ringing but i was charged for$1.92 with no connection at all it’s a rippedoff and they did not respond to my complain
September 9th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Peter says:

Sorry to hear, Jean. Where are you calling from? I know from Canada to the Philippines it’s not free… but they still shouldn’t be charging when there’s no connection!
September 9th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Peter says:

adam: I just tried ZoiPPE. The website is terribly buggy and there’s no free phone-to-phone calls except for an introductory offer. I wouldn’t recommend that anybody use it at this moment.
November 25th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
shashi says:

i thought this is too good to be true the jajah free phone to phone call if both are members but itried it and the test call is and the next try i call they said in the philippines its not ringing but i was charged for$1.92 with no connection at all itâ€™s a rippedoff and they did not respond to my complain
February 21st, 2008 at 4:54 pm
victor stern says:

I would like to re-register. I left jajah recently, but now wish to return. How do I register?
April 5th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Peter says:

Hi victor,

I don't really know the answer to that question as that is something you'll have to take up with Jajah themselves. You probably just have to use a different e-mail address to create another account with Jajah.
March 1st, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Colin says:

How did these people register my email for this service and charge me, I have never heard of them ?
March 31st, 2009 at 8:45 am
Chinarut says:

I’ve had a decent experience with Jajah over the past year. I’m glad they have direct email support (better than Skype but not as robust as Gizmo’s case manager) I’ve definitely gotten free calls but at the end of the day, I value having phone calls that are not dependent on the quality of my broadband connection and the fact that I can make calls while out & about and not be tied to a computer. Rates vary but in general, I’ve been quite pleased with call quality to Japan mobiles and aside from a few blips here & there – calls to Thailand mobiles are very good and can only expect it to get better as they iron things out.

my 2 cents!