Information Madness

Just today, I read couple of story that mentioned about making free calls for life using VoIP technology. California-based Jajah, a company that deals with voice over internet protocol (VoIP), today introduced a cheap long-distance calling facility for calls from and to India. Priced at Rs 3 (per minute), calls to the US and Europe but will soon be made free of cost for users, claims the company. 

Jajah is a simple way to make cheap calls using the Internet - without headphones, microphones or software downloads.

• Register to their website
• type in the number you wanted to call from as well as the number you wanted to reach
• And you are all set

Business Standards has more on this story.

Similarly, a Silicon Valley based VoIP startup Ooma has introduced a device that uses your internet to make calls. Now deal here is, buy the Ooma box for $400 and you get free domestic calls forever, both to other VoIP users and to national and local landlines. Now this is in USA though.

Ooma Inc. will also offer a free second line, conference calling, voice mail service and an online "lounge" where users may change their preferences or get voice mail in an e-mail format. These devices will be available with an invitation-only offer for now but will go public probably around September this year.

The technology hinges on a patent-pending call-routing algorithm called "distributed termination," similar to peer-to-peer and distributed computing ideas. Traditional phone switches connect a local-toll or long-distance call through the public switched telephone network — but ooma, which works with both cable and DSL, uses the Internet and P2P technology to connect the calls for free. Ooma's architecture allows it to bypass fees that most telephone providers pay to connect calls to landlines and cell phones.

Yahoo News has more story on this one.

Recently Reliance acquired Yipes for some $300 million. And I am waiting for some exciting offers from Reliance communications. I am sure Reliance guys would knock off all the other deals. But thats just my point of view. You might disagree on that.

So is VoIP the future ??