Jajah: Mobile VoIP Projects Fuel ‘Significant Growth’

In mobile VoIP, success will depend on the ability to consistently grow subscriber numbers, while, at the same time, achieving significant average revenue-per-user. Even as the global economy falters Jajah says it’s one of the companies that’s on the way to achieving both of those goals.

Founded in 2005, Mountain View, Calif.-based Jajah cemented some key partnerships in 2008 that, along with its deal with Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) will provide some stabilizing revenue over the next year. The company has also patented a method to monetize ads over phone calls and is pursuing several other revenue streams. Combined with the growing uptake of VoIP, those efforts mean “2009 is a big growth year for us,” said CEO Trevor Healy.

Jajah already has a large portion of the Internet voice market cornered, thanks to its deal with Yahoo. Jajah technology powers the search engine’s Yahoo! Messenger platform and premium voice services. At the same time Jajah has developed a white-label service that is helping about 100 telcos worldwide put minutes back on their networks, Healy said.

“We are telco-friendly,” Healy said.

That claim is unexpected considering telcos’ fear that VoIP would siphon their traffic. Indeed, Healy said, there’s no way for operators to combat the Web 2.0 applications flooding the market. Therefore, they might as well take part in the trends. The white-label service accomplishes that by letting carriers offer their own Voice-over Wi-Fi product. The VoIP traffic routes on Jajah’s networks for much of the call and then ends on telecom partners’ last-mile loops.

“We’re taking online traffic and placing it back on traditional telco networks,” Healy said, without naming the carriers benefiting.

Jajah also is working with cablecos and telcos through an OEM model. The company has created an application that offers wireless connectivity — through the 3.5g channel, not GSM — so users can talk in places not traditionally covered by wireless, such as subways. A spinoff of Japan’s KDDI is close to adopting the technology, Healy said, and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) is starting to use the application.

Jajah is counting on a new chip from Intel Corp. (INTC) to propel it into the next stage of mobile VoIP. The two companies made a deal last year, the fruits of which should materialize soon — a chip that allows a computer to answer an incoming Internet call even in sleep mode.

“Until now, if it was in suspend mode, you can’t activate a call,” Healy said. “That’s why PCs haven’t taken off as good communications devices, so Intel is rectifying that.”

Jajah is also pursuing an application that’s been much-predicted but seldom seen: visual voice mail.

“I view voice mail as a broken method of communication,” Healy said. “You have to go and get it.” Instead, Jajah will transcribe the audio file and deliver it as text to an e-mail message. “It’s a lot more meaningful way of dealing with messaging.”

Healy didn’t say when Jajah might launch its visual voice mail platform. In the meantime the company has developed a method for making money off VoIP calls. To date, Internet calling has yielded little, if any, ARPU for providers. Jajah’s answer to the problem was to create an application that works like this: When a user dials a call, the ring tone falls to a lower volume as an ad plays over the top. As soon as the receiver picks up, however, the ad ends.

“The consumer’s call never gets interrupted,” Healy said.

Jajah hopes to work with Google Inc. (GOOG) on the phone-ad idea, making the search giant a supplier to Jajah and its telco customers, not a competitor.

Healy said he expects the company’s momentum to continue, despite worsening financials worldwide, because the deals Jajah secured in 2008 will help carry the company through the recession.

“If we didn’t sign a new deal in 2009,” he added, “we’d still have significant growth.”