Mobile VoIP Model Must Change

“We’re using Wi-Fi and a variety of different access methods, including GSM, to provide data voices and SMS, but the idea behind our platform is to spit out products at a very rapid rate to meet consumer trends, to support any method in which users want to communicate,” Tagg explained. “These days you have to think about stickiness and monetization, and that means getting personalized with services like ours. That’s not necessarily bad for carriers that embrace our capabilities.”

At the same time, mobile VoIP providers are realizing that the classic model of low-cost VoIP calls is not sustainable. “A lot of people will use VoIP because they have friends in places like Africa,” he added. “But as soon as your service is .0001 cents more than someone else, you could see your entire customer base switch.”

Truphone Business for BlackBerry, launched at CTIA, targets the enterprise user.

Voice-curious Web services companies like Google Inc. have a similar modeling issue. “A lot of companies are trying to make a go of Web-based communication aggregation plays, but the model depends on how many ads you can serve to the eyeball community – a tough sell in today’s world economy,” Tagg said. “But when you can wed the monetization of selling calls with the stickiness and integration with other communications methods, you can avoid that pressure.”

New Innovation for Operators

While it remains the No. 1 telecom service, revenue from voice continues to decline. Operators can take advantage of IP to stop the race to zero.

“For carriers, voice is easy,” said JAJAH’s Naphtali. “Internally they understand it, customers understand it – but the fact is, there’s been no innovation out of voice in a while. That is about to change, and we want to help them do that.”

JAJAH has crafted an end-to-end platform for IP telephony that offers tailored white-label services at the front end, like an application for the iPod Touch that turns it into a Wi-Fi phone. For non-traditional carriers it also has a full back-end infrastructure to support call termination, billing, fraud management, and the creation of a storefront.

“The idea is that we can be your bridge between old and new, and to be able to support any device, any network, any OS, anywhere,” said Naphtali. “Carriers are saying to us that they want to engage with the existing base with smart applications – the idea of voice-ifying the Web on a mobile basis resonates well with them. VoIP used to be threat, but now we see it can also be a tool.”