How To Make Your Friends Call You More 233
B0bReader writes, "Simply sign up to something called jajah (a VOIP service that connects real telephones) using your friend's number (mobiles included), then log in and dial your own number. Your friend's phone will ring and after they hear a brief 'Jajah is connecting your call' they will be calling you and incur all charges. As an added bonus you will quite probably receive your friend's latest voice-mail message as your own (at least on Irish networks), which you may or may not wish to hear. There is even a Jajah Firefox extension — which at the time of writing is the Firefox featured add-on — so you can do it right from your browser. This is about the best example of a bad idea, with terrible implementation, that I have seen all day. And with the wonderful publicity the Firefox page offers it should reach a wide audience in no time."
Hyper-reaction! (Score:3, Informative)
This service however does not cause your friends phone to call you, thats rediculous. The service calls you localy, and calls them localy, and then links your calls with VOIP, saving any long distance calls. Thats about it.
I would use it for International Calling (Score:2, Informative)
WRONG! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:WRONG! (Score:3, Informative)
JaJah is GREAT! (Score:5, Informative)
The way that they work is that they call both you and your party and connect the call via VOIP. However, you foot the bill with a credit card. I tried many other calling-card companies, Skype, and whatnot. So far, Jajah is pretty good, and darn cheap.
Sure, you could sign up and put your friends number, but it will not charge any money to them. My only complaint is that you can only change your phone numbers 3 times so if you move often (as I have over the last few months) you might have to open a new account.
They even give you a few $$$ to spend BEFORE they ask for your credit card number! so you can try them out for "free".
yfarjoun.
submitter confused (Score:2, Informative)
connecting these two local calls over the internet (voip). The advantage for
international calling should be obvious.
In normal use jajah requires you to credit your account (visa,mastercard etc) and then charges
for calls. And although you could use it for prank calls by registering someone else
phone number then connecting them to someone else (the queen or whoever) you would have to
pay.
There is a free trail where you could set up a prank call for free but your friends wouldn't pay,
it would be jajah that would pick up the bill.
Unless in the US or somewhere you have to pay to *receive* calls but even
then it wouldnt cost your friend anymore than if you phoned him/her normally.
Re:Stupidity must be contagious ... (Score:5, Informative)
This is a good service, and not worthy of an amateurish slashdot post like this.
Not quite (Score:4, Informative)
There are plenty of plans that make airtime charges more complicated, such as no airtime charges nights and weekends, no charges to people on the same network and so on but the basis is that the owner of the phone pays for the time it's actually on the air. However they don't pay for other charges on received calls. You can call from Germany and you'll pick up the long distance tab, I'll just be responsible for airtime. However if I call Germany I am responsible for both the airtime and the LD.
Re:WRONG! (Score:2, Informative)
Didn't think of adding friends numbers though. The problem I see if after they rack up a bill they link it to your IP. That and of course, your friends would notice,"One moment please. Jajah is connecting your call" automated voice that talks when the 'caller' calls the 'called party'.
[J]
EXPLANATION (Score:2, Informative)
Jajah is basically similar to Skype, except that instead of using your laptop to talk, you use your phone. The end result is the same, that is you are connecting over IP to the other person.
So, you go ahead and schedule a call, your phone rings, you pick up, and you're connected to your friend. In Europe, you don't pay for incoming calls, so this makes phone calls free.
Now you're thinking, so what's the point of using this in the U.S.?
Suppose I want to call my family in Sweden, but I'm in New Hampshire. I don't want to pay a fortune for that call. I could use Skype, but I want to take a walk without dragging my laptop around (and I don't have a PocketPC). With Jajah, I pay to receive a local call, they connect me over IP (for free, or else a very low charge, like 2 cents/minute). I've used this a few times, and though it's not completely reliable, and doesn't work every time, on average it works very well. And I expect it to get better.
Re:Hey, this is Slashdot (Score:3, Informative)
Come on, people - someone give this guy points. It was the perfect response!