Earlier this week, Jajah announced a new mobile VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service that allows smart-phone users to make low-cost and, in some cases, free international calls. Customers simply enter Jajah`s mobile Web portal through their handset`s browser, enter their user name and password and then make a either a free or low-cost call.

The launch of Jajah Mobile Web comes on the heals of a mobile VOIP offering by Fring, which, unlike Jajah, requires users to download software and install it in their Internet-enabled handsets. The Fring service gives mobile users access to P-to-P (peer-to-peer) VOIP offerings such as Skype and Google Talk.

Microsoft appears to have its finger on the pulse of mobile VOIP, too. Next week in Barcelona, the U.S. software giant will unwrap a new version of its Windows Mobile OS that will supposedly enable carriers and device maker to add VOIP functionality to Windows Mobile devices.

All these announcements -- and the many more expected at this year`s 3GSM World Congress -- come as Skype, which essentially stunned the mobile phone industry last year with its VOIP plans, acknowledges technical and commercial hurdles.

In a recent interview in Finnish newspaper, Skype co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrom spoke of "technical obstacles" and conceded that efforts to make Skype work had been taking "much longer than expected."

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, Eric Lagier, Skype director of business development for hardware and mobile, called the lack of attractive flat-rate fees for most mobile phone services a key commercial hurdle to mobile VOIP usage. He said the company didn`t want to be in a position of claiming that its service is free, but facing users who at the end of the month are docked with a huge broadband usage fee.

At last year`s 3GSM World Congress, Skype and the Hutchison 3 Group (Hutchison 3G) announced a partnership to provide what they had hoped to become the world`s first commercial VOIP service for mobile phones.

Hutchison 3G, which operates IP-based mobile broadband networks in several European markets, was one of the first mobile phone operators to embrace VOIP, a technology many in the industry view as a major threat to their cash-cow voice business.

But industry experts admit that challenges remain. One hurdle in providing quality VOIP service over mobile handsets is the uplink, which is currently too slow to support quality voice calls, John Giere, chief marketing officer at Alcatel-Lucent, said in an earlier interview.

To increase uplink speeds, operators of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks, which dominate Europe and many parts of Asia and Latin America, will need to upgrade their networks with HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) technology, which will give operators "the bidirectional capability they need to run real VOIP," he said.

The high-speed technology is not expected to become commercially available in volume until the latter part of 2007 or early 2008. Operators are presently busy rolling out the downlink counterpart HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access).

By John Blau

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Jinan Yinquan, a technology company that offers VoIP services in the People’s Republic of China, has been developing telecommunication solutions for China’s burgeoning Internet industry for more than half a decade.

Li Kunwu, President and CEO of China VoIP & Digital Telecom Inc. is scheduled to address the telecommunications summit.

“In less than a decade this has become a major industry symposium to discuss current and future developments and exchange information vital to developing further breakthroughs in technology,” said Kunwu. “I’m honored that I will be representing our fine company. This is further evidence that Jinan Yinquan is being recognized as one of the leaders in China’s burgeoning VoIP industry.”

The 2007 program features more than 30 keynote speakers featuring distinguished presenters from across China and around the world. Additionally, in excess of one thousand industry executives are expected to attend the event which also features an exhibition for solutions, technologies, tools and services for the VoIP industry.

Jinan Yinquan’s proprietary NP Soft Switch IP telephone system enables users to access Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP) services allowing customers to use the system to make telephone calls to anyone in the world at a much lower cost than standard telephone rates.

Jinan Yinquan currently services three provinces and 19 cities with Shandong Province its primary base of operations. Short- and long-term plans call for the expansion throughout China.

The company works in concert with China Tie Tong, one of the six largest basic telecom operators in China with 31 provincial branches and 316 municipal branches. employees approximately 72,000 people. Its high-speed backbone optical transmission network consists of five fiber loops covering most of the cities in China’s 31 provinces and a distance of 52,000 kilometers. During the period of 2001 to 2005 annual revenues have grown by 30 percent while fixed-line subscribers increased from 135 million to 164 million. By the end of 2005 the company had 2 million Internet subscribers and assets of 53.3 billion RMB.

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If the answer is “No,” or “I’m not sure,” then mark your calendar for an upcoming free Webinar sponsored by Natural Convergence  and INTERNET TELEPHONY Magazine.  The Webinar, “Network Security for Hosted Small Business Solutions – Are You Ready?” gets underway January 31 at 11:00 a.m. PST/2:00PM EST.

Presenters for this Webinar are:

    * Larry Strickland, Director of Product Line Management at Natural Convergence, Inc.
    * Michel Moubarak, Director of Systems Engineering at Natural Convergence, Inc.
    * Dominic Chorafakis, Senior Product Manager at BorderWare Technologies, Inc.
    * Erik Linask, Associate Editor at Technology Marketing Corporation (publisher of INTERNET TELEPHONY Magazine)

The event will focus on strategies services providers can use to win customers in the small business market by offering a solution that includes robust network security. The presenters will stress the fact that providers cannot afford to compromise network security, even if they need to move quickly to capture the very lucrative SMB market.
 
Several network models will be discussed during the Webinar to present real world context for the very important topic of network security. At the core of each model is an emphasis on developing solutions that are simple to sell, deploy and support.

By Mae Kowalke

You Can Discuss This News in Voice Over IP Forum.