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Jajah - Alien Connects to Skype

June 26, 2005 10:07 PM

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An Austrian company has released Jajah and Robin Good calls it a potential Skype Killer. After testing it today, I'm not so sure as it just points to another new opportunity for Skype to take on SIP.

However a couple of things are certain. As parasitic software (include examples like vSkype in this definition) attaches itself to SkypeNet, Skype's readiness for the strategic challenges posed are questionable. In one test today my Jajah was connected into a Skype conference call. From Skype's perspective that's in a call with a foreign and unapproved agent. Not something they planned on. Although Jajah is not alone in managing this feat.

OK away from the hyperbole. What did we learn beyond the surprise of searching for Skype buddies, and adding them to Jajah and then making Jajah calls to Skype buddies?

jajah1.jpg jajah2.jpg jajahskypebusy.jpg jajahconf1.jpg

Beyond the weird Watamba story as a product, it is close to prime time. Hanging it on Skype is a hope to get early adopters. Other than their SkypeOut equivalent, it is hard to see what the Jajah business model is. I ran some tests and began considering a SkypeSIP option.

Some quick tests:

  • Got it going reasonably easily. It requires an e-mail address. The UI is not as easy to decipher, however works well enough.
  • Demonstrated acceptable if not excellent voice quality. Jajah claims are a little over the top for different codecs. The client itself was a bulky 14.5 mb approx twice the size of Skype to download.
  • Easy to add buddies. Made a Jajah to Jajah call and Jajah to Skype buddy calls. My Skype buddy was unable to return the call to Jajah.
  • I was unable to create a conference call to two skype accounts. I was able to create a conference call to one Jajah account and one Skype account. Note Jajah to Skype calls work fine subject to the Skype client availablity. See the picture above.
  • I could not get it to open the account page to add dollars. So made no calls to landlines at this time. Rates quoted are below Skype's.
  • The claims and everything I tried suggest this is all packaged up with SIP. There is no authorization system. If you want to add a buddy you just add them. This was the same when I tested Teleo. As you would expect adding a Skype buddy to a Jajah account doesn't require an authorization.
  • Similarly, status is online and offline and perhaps some form of away. This appears to be consistent with SIP / SIMPLE implementations I've seen
  • When they add a Skype account they give it a jajah extension. thus I become stuart_henshall@jajah.com. I presume they then add it to their SIP registry.
  • I didn't get the video working. It requires me to open a UDP port. That means messing with the router and that's not consumer friendly.
  • It looked like all calls were routed through Amsterdam. So I'm not sure where the P2P claims come in.

Robin Good covered most of the weak points. I found I was not able to send a chat message to another person while in a call. As perhaps expected you can't send a chat message to a Skype buddy as there is no way of getting an answer.

Big Questions:

Can they scale to make Jajah to Skype Calls without overwhelming the Skype clients they are running as servers?

I doubt it.

However there could be a short term business model for mobile users etc wanting to call Skype users or even other SIP users wanting to connect with Skype users. Some packages are already available, for mobile callers who want to dial international numbers, for example. As Skype user numbers grow, more parasites will want to piggyback on Skype.

Note:
Jajah to Skype calls are unlikely to be secure. Thus potentially anyone on Jajah's staff could listen in on any call.

How should Skype think about this?


I believe there's an opportunity to move up SIP integration. However not in the way that many will interpret the statement. It's time that Skype offered a SIP number the same way they offer voice mail or SkypeIn. It's a chargeable service. Thus for $10 per year or thereabouts Skype offers SkypeSIP.

Consider this example. My company has installed Xten softphones and has various hardware solutions. With my SkypeSIP number I can then add my Skype to the Xten client and take my calls at work. No more problems or complaints about corporate security. I just add stuart_henshall@skypenet.com and everyone is happy.

Now my company could also arrange with Skype to "network" the corporate directory into Skype. Thus Skype agrees to bring into the Skype cloud name@ibm.com etc. Thus now IBM can manage the reputation of it's people with and when they are calling Skyper. Similarly IBM can port employee profiles to Skype. No doubt they can remain unlisted should they wish that.

Thus a SkypeSIP product is just like the augmented Xten Softphone for which they want $30 for volume. I think Skype could make more money as a value add.

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Posts linking to Jajah - Alien Connects to Skype:

» Being blogged from JAJAH.BLOG
This week many bloggers have published about JAJAH. Here is a short selection of interesting blogs: "JAJAH Maybe More Than Skype?" by Andy Abramson via VoIP Watch "JAJAH webphone" and "JAJAH takes on Skype?" via Zec's Online Journal "JAJAH Proa [Read More]

Tracked on July 9, 2005 10:45 AM

» Being blogged from JAJAH.BLOG
This week many bloggers have published about JAJAH. Here is a short selection of interesting blogs: "JAJAH Maybe More Than Skype?" by Andy Abramson via VoIP Watch "JAJAH webphone" and "JAJAH takes on Skype?" via Zec's Online Journal "JAJAH Proa [Read More]

Tracked on July 11, 2005 4:08 AM

Comments

Posted by: Tindrum at June 27, 2005 6:30 AM

With this thingy, is there no need to start say xlite and skype? I can contact my skype buddies, plus xlite like sip configuration for other voips, say stanaphone, voipbuster , sipphone etc?
just running jajah wud suffice? it allows for mulitple sip proxies?

Posted by: Stuart Henshall at June 27, 2005 8:19 AM

Tindrum,
Thanks for commenting.

If you want your Skype buddies to return a call then you will have to use Skype. So yes with this "thingy" you could contact SIP networks at no cost and similarly Skype (as long as they have bridging capacity available). I inserted Xten as an example of corporates. In fact Jajah could work in a corporate environment and Teleo similarly has a model (although SIP it is a closed network).

You will only be able to connect with "open" SIP networks eg FWD. So far most SIP enabled networks (eg Vonage) don't provide access to our SIP address. Were consumers to have access to their own SIP addresses (and install setup etc was easy) then the whole market for softphones and hardware would be revolutionized.

I saw in the Jajah contacts window space to insert one SIP proxy. I'm not sure if it supports multiples. That is why I substituted the Xten example.

Posted by: GLADIATOR at June 27, 2005 1:37 PM

Since they give Euros 5 free of calls its easy to test the landline call.
I did both to SKYPE VM and my home phone. Quality was good in both.

Posted by: Stuart Henshall at June 27, 2005 3:29 PM

Adam, I think it was five minutes and not five euros. I also couldn't log on this am.

Posted by: Nicole Simon at June 27, 2005 6:59 PM

I don't care about SIP numbers that much.

But I do care about the fritzbox I want to have - isdn and sip and wlan in a fricking cool box ... getting phone calls on voip with your normal telephone gear through the box - but only working with a sip. :((

Posted by: tindrum at June 28, 2005 9:34 PM

Thanks for the clarifications. And now I see that Wavigo http://www.wavigo.com/ has come up with the skype bridge, plus access to other ims like yahoo, msn,icq etc.

Posted by: joeturner at June 30, 2005 11:23 AM

We tested this on the voipuser.org forum the other day and couldn't get it to work.

Maybe skype has seen the threat and cut it off??

Joe

Posted by: faridi at August 24, 2005 10:28 PM

jajah

jajah

Posted by: sailor joe at November 15, 2005 12:06 PM

jajah is cool and apparently they have closed a finance deal with sequoia capital to finance them. but that is rumor...

Posted by: Janice Yang at November 15, 2005 7:08 PM

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so you can make free calls through pc to pc, the sound's quality is comparable with PSTN.
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Posted by: Georg at January 24, 2006 6:34 AM

Done some research on Mr Jajah, since I was intrigued by the WATAMBA-"bull-shit-story". Apparently the jajah community emerged out of the mpq-voip community, which itself was started by a company called Qubus, a austrian technology business. the guy behind Qubus seems to be daniel mattes and even though he does not seem to appear at any point in the whole jajah story, he is said to be the hard-driving mastermind behind Jajah. I have attached a picture from Mr Mattes, from now onwards, Mr Watamba. I have got a nice bet running, who will find out who he really is? hope that some reactions will come along....

http://www.pressetext.at/pte.mc?pte=010124029

Posted by: Sam at July 18, 2006 4:57 AM

Hi,

We have developed a Desktop phone buddy for Jajah, which will take the currently selected number in a windows application and dial the number using a hot key, plus redial and quick dial functionality.

Great in a business environment, like ours...

Download at www.jajahphonebuddy.com

please try out and give us feedback....

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