Jaxtr, the online VoIP service that also offers a social network, has launched out-of-network calling that will allow users to call phone lines around the world. The new service will allow users to call family and friends (even non-members) from their own phones for a fraction of the costs associated with traditional long distance calling. The company has also raised a $10 million Series B funding round led by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners.
To use the service, users need to enter each international number they’d like to call on the site, which generates a unique local number for every contact. From then on, they can simply call the number from their phone as they normally would. The initial setup seems like a bit of a hassle, but it is significantly easier than using a calling card every time you need to place a call. Rates vary by country, and are generally much cheaper than standard call fees (many also appear to be lower than those found on similar VoIP services).
The site is also introducing “Premium Memberships”, which offer digital voicemail through email and customized contact pages. These premium memberships are actually free, but are only granted to active members (the site declined to specify what exactly was needed to attain ‘active’ status). Members who don’t qualify as “active” should be able to purchase premium membership in the near future.
These new features, especially the out-of-network calls, make Jaxtr increasingly competitive with other VoIP operators like Jajah, which has a number of very similar features. And while there might not be much that differentiates the two companies from each other, it is important to note the massive market for international calls, which can certainly support more than a few similar services.
Really? Jaxtr? This is by far one of the worst social networking sites out there. What is the point if they raised $10 million if they don’t even have 10 users? I believe that this is a step in the wrong direction. The reason that Facebook and MySpace succeed is because hot girls use them. I do not anticipate hot girls flocking to a site that now offers low cost VoIP. They will most likely use Facebook and Skype in conjunction, since both are already well established.
Healthy vie is good but i don’t think so that JAJAH has the ability to beat JAXTR.Jaxtr is much much popular than Jajah.
Jerry Yang has been abducted by aliens. Hear about it tonight on Coast-to-Coast.
It’s not a social network. It’s a voip service that has a social networking feature.
Could anyone comment on the call quality? Is there significant lag?
I make calls to india almost every other day (I have family there).
Let me say few words about JAXTR and 2.0:
Jaxtr is a “phone-card” company. Investors put $10 ml in a phone card company…so maybe either “phone-card” business is pretty good or the 2.0 party is about to crash!
Some services that I use for calling India: http://www.airtelcallhome.com, http://www.reli...ceindiacall.com
These services have by far the best call quality. Yes, they also charge $0.06 per minute to India (same rate as Jaxtr). And I do not have to install anything on my phone!! Phew!
Why would I ever use Jaxtr? If there is a Jaxtr marketing team member reading this..then please explain why should I use your service.
I have these old account of Jaxter, but I have never really use it because its so complicated and i have a lot to configure in my phone. I hope they made things easier now, like say, Skype or Fring.
The technical people of Jaxter should hire or perhaps enhance their services. My friend says he tried it once and the voice quality is good, but not very good.
I prefer Rebtel. Its a much nicer cheap International VoIP service.
@Sandeep
My name is Alex and I work at Rebtel.
I’m a little biased here but I believe regular calling cards are facing extinction sooner rather than later. There are plenty of VoIP services, like ours for example, that offer even lower prices to India than both Reliance and Airtel. Not to mention that on average you only get 60% of the minutes you pay for when calling internationally using calling cards. Not the mention the “hidden fees” you pay for connecting your call.
I think you should revise your situation and I can almost assure you that you won’t regret leaving calling cards for a VoIP service (almost) regardless what company you pick.
Re: Alex Drewniak
Alex
I agree with your comments about calling cards.
I’m a hevy voip user and use a lot ov voipcheap, skype, jajah, and rebtel to some extent. The thing I don’t understand is why non of these services offer straightforward call-back numbers?
I.e. a phone number which I can ring and which will call me back, then asking to dial the number. I know you offer he join function by SMS which is fine but why not add simple “callback +number” by sms?
Why not offer all SMS fucntions via email too?
@Olivier
With reservation for not understanding you correctly, we do offer call-back numbers for our users.
As you know, when you register with Rebtel and add a contact you automatically receive that friends number to your phone by SMS and your friend receives your number. This is always the case except for when the contact you add live in a non-Rebtel country or use Verizon in the US because they prohibit us from using short codes.
Webs like Jaxtr are the future and potential threat to MNO/ MVNOs as it can squeeze their profits by offering alternatives to end-users.
@Oliver, @ Sandeep, and @ Alex
I am the founder and CEO of Tokiva (www.tokiva.com). Tokiva offers SMS based call-back and much more. The rates starts from $0.03 / min.
As for the voice quality, Tokiva has over 800,000 users world wide, many of them switched over from Jajah and Skype.
@Tong Li
Thanks, but I think I will stick with Rebtel
I think it’s too complicated to download software to your phone. I’d rather use it as it is.
As i’ve said many times in the past, these companies are either providing transport or some type of telco service. It looks like Jaxtr is trying to put a service spin on what is essentially a “save money by doing it my way” play. I use the call back service when i’m traveling abroad, but no one should believe it’s anything other than an arbitrage play.
Rebtel, Jaxtr, Jajah et al aren’t examples of phone cards 2.0, as much as they are simply a new flavor of minutes resellers 1.0.
The minutes business is a game of scale. All these guys know it. I have no idea who win will on the provisioning side, but I know all consumers will win. It is indeed race to zero.
Which raises an interesting question for the group: who wins when transport is free (or even closer to free than it is now)? How does one one create value when the metered usage model goes away? What *is* a telco company at that point?
I don’t believe digital voicemail as a premium service will suffice to support the entire company. What other revenue streams do they rely on? http://www.read...ex.php?RTA=web2
Greetings all. I’m Stacy from jaxtr. There are a number of questions to address so I’ll start with the most recent and resist the temptation to post 200 words!
No downloads: First, I want to point out that jaxtr does not require any downloads or Internet connectivity on your phone. We provide you with a local, direct dial number for your contact.
Our rates and revenue streams: We have two revenue streams which allow us to offer super cheap rates as well as free in-network calling. First, our web site drives significant traffic due to the engagement features – cafe jaxtr and individual jaxtr contact pages. Second, we now offer jax for sale and premium features, which we’ll continue to enhance.
Social features: As mentioned, we have cafe jaxtr, a social network that allows you to actually talk with people. While not for everyone, it’s a new twist on social networking. We also have calling widgets. These can be inserted into your websites or blogs and allow you to “hear” from callers worldwide without sharing your phone number.
OK enough for now (I know, I know – verbose)! Thanks for your time.
Hmm … interesting. So I get a new number for every international number I have. That means, now, I need to remember two numbers for every international contact. Thanks, but no thanks .. seems redundant.
So instead of having multiple numbers for the same contact, why wouldn’t I use a MobileVoIP client, say TringMe or TruPhone and then call international using my phone’s contact/address-book directly just as I make any other call?
@Anand…
Sorry if I wasn’t clear…you get a direct dial number for the contact which you save and use directly from your mobile phone. Here’s an example…My friend lives in Spain. I got a jaxtr number for her and saved it into my mobile phone. Now, when I want to call her, I simply find her name and hit the green talk button on my mobile phone just as if she was living down the street. I called her last week during our test period and talked for 43 minutes for 45 jax (~54 cents) from my mobile.
typo…make that ~45 cents…
Why do I really need to use this ? I call my friends in India at 0.05 cents oer min. Jaxtr charges 0.06 cents per min. So how come they provide far more cheaper long distance calling ? Its just another service…. whew
Stacy:
Will you answer this question:
Why do you think you can get international rates cheaper than those than the phone card guys?
@Stacy,
You were very clear …… in misleading the users here
. I still stand by my point about how impractical this idea is and here’s why:
For every contact I call overseas, I get a local number. But that doesn’t mean I don’t need to store the “real” international number. Figure this… I travel from US to Europe and have to call the same friend in India .. I need to get another LOCAL number in Europe. How does that make sense? I will end up having multiple numbers for the same contact.
This is crazy !! .. How many numbers do I need to remember a contact ??
Instead of that, with the cheap worldwide calling rates, I would much rather use one number to call directly from my address-book using a simple to use MobileVoIP client (Truphone, TringMe etc). Also, please note that, I don’t have to pay per “cellular” mins charge to use your service since those clients work over any data networks including WiFi.
Taking your example
, I can’t see how you would have spent only 45cents for 43 mins. Also, did you add your local cellular mins charge in this as well? Lay out your charges clearly for me: Is it “local cellular charge in US” + “Jaxtr charges for spain” ?
to call spain : I just checked your rates for spain and they are : Spain 2 jax $0.02 / minute
Spain (Mobile) 19 jax $0.19 / minute. So, unless you get an insiders rate
So essentially, for calling spain:
With Truphone, I pay landline: 3p/min and mobile: 15p/min.
With TringMe, I pay landline: 1.32 cents/min and mobile 14 cents/min.
With Jaxtr, I pay landline: 2 cents/min and mobile 19 cents/min + local cellular mins.
That only proves my point. This idea may look good on paper, but it isn’t a practical solution and it binds me to your charges which aren’t really the best in the market with multiple numbers for the same contacts depending on where I am currently located/travelling.
@Adolf
The answer to your question goes back to our two revenue streams, which you can see from the earlier post, and because we spend $0 marketing as we rely on word of mouth. Marketing – as an acquisition tool – represents a huge expense for phone companies. Another reason is that we’re light on infrastructure and use technology vs. investing in capital. We can offer cheaper rates because we’re not bound by similar debts.
@Stacy, Anand has asked good questions … can we get some clarifications ? or are you now trying to hide the facts. Tell us how did you make a 43 minute call using 45 cents on Jaxtr ? or else can we assume that a Jaxtr representative is purposely misleading here.
@Adolf, see the comparision table by Anand. Jaxtr rate seems way above the competitors and Jaxtr representative is mum on it
I’ve been using a company called WQN for years now to call to both India and UAE. The quality is great and the rates are very competitive. They give FREE minutes to their customers all the time with special bonus offers. They also have a loyalty program that gives their customers up to 3000 FREE minutes every 6 months. I’m able to get lots of free minutes to call my destinations with great quality.
Check them out at http://www.WQN.com
Rejeev works for this company, completely biased point of view!
Apologies for the delay. As you can imagine, things have been busy in the past 24 hours.
The last thing that I want to do is mislead. In the spirit of transparency, here are some sample rates that you’ll find on the website and a link for ALL of our rates if you have a specific need:
• Canada: 1 jax/minute ($.01)
• China: 1 jax/minute ($.01)
• India: 6 jax/minute ($.06)
• United Kingdom: 1 jax/minute ($.01)
• United States: 1 jax/minute ($.01)
Rates: http://www.jaxt.../user/rates.jsp
Additionally, yes, you are charged your local minutes. Sorry that I assumed that this aspect was obvious as it applies to all calling cards and incumbent long distance carriers as you have to pay to have a phone in your home or office.
As for Spain, my bad, it was a call placed during beta and was a result of a bug (as the system was loading the wrong rates). Apologies for the confusion. It is 2 cents landline and 19 cents mobile to call Spain. There is a two cent connection fee, plus the cost of your local minutes. Again, my bad.
So why will people choose to use jaxtr?
Here’s how I see it…First, once you have a direct dial jaxtr number saved on your mobile phone, you have the ability for a marginal cost to call overseas whenever the thought hits you without software downloads or extra numbers.
Additionally, it’s a social communications package vs. simply cheap calling.
When you link your phone to the web with jaxtr, you can forward your calls to any phone linked to your account (mobile, home, office), never need to give people a new number for you as the jaxtr number can stay the same even if you change your mobile or office numbers, gain control over your calls by choosing to send specific callers to voicemail and others to your phone, and hide your number should you be using it for social interactions.
@Stacy, I knew it, but thanks for the clarifications.
Assuming, local call charges to be between 10cents to 45 cents a min (based on VZW wireless US offerings), your 45 min call to spain can range from a whopping : 45*2 (rate/min) + 2 (conn feed) + 45 * 45 (local call charge) = 2117 cents to a minimum of 45*2 (rate/min) + 2 (conn feed) + 45 * 10 (local call charge) = 542 cents.
With TruPhone or TringMe – it comes to approx 60 cents for the call.
On top on that, with Jaxtr, I still need to remember different contact number for each country. Can’t see how it’s worth in anyway. Good for you that you folks already secured the funding prior to the announcement
What company still charges for local calls
“local call charges to be between 10cents to 45 cents a min”??????????
You need a new plan or provider
@Alex @Stacy
Airtel (www.airtelcallhome.com) gives me $0.06 per minute for cellphone or landline. This is the same rate that rebtel or jaxtr give. And the quality is very-very good. Absolutely perfect quality. I feel that its even better than calling US domestic on cellphone.
There is no hidden fee and I do not have to remember multiple numbers for multiple calls (as specified by Anand).
I am still not convinced why I should switch over to jaxtr or rebtel. I would be a very willing customer if you could either lower the rate to ($0.05 or less) or if you could provide some additional service (I cant think of any at this point).
All readers: I personally vouch for the call-quality (to india) using Airtel. I was a long time customer of Reliance but moved over to Airtel and needless to say that it has been a good experience. The only drawback is that their website supports only IE…it sucks..but I can live with that.
@Anand
Sorry, but your post doesn’t jive with what I see from jaxtr (www.jaxtr.com/user/rates) or on Truphone’s site.
Landline w/jaxtr to spain is 2 cents/minutes on landline and 19 cents per minute on mobile, and our global SMS is without charge beyond your mobile plan.
Truphone to Spain is in EUROS and the website says that the prices are Landlines£0.03 (or 4 cents), Mobiles£0.15 (that’s 23 cents), SMS£0.10 (15 cents).
Additionally, if the caller is using a landline, there isn’t typically a per minute charge. And many mobile plans come with bundled minutes or free incoming calls, so local call cost is rarely a significant portion of the overall cost.
Plus TruPhone also requires downloading & installing a mobile client. Jaxtr can be used with any phone – no downloads or Internet connectivity on your phone required.
@Stacy, trying to mislead again? you are seriously goofing up!
First, I just shown calculation based on what you said in your previous response – you made call to your friend in Spain using your mobile phone…remember ?. I have used the same rates for Jaxtr that you quote … sheesh !! I suggest you go over my response again !
Even-though mobile plans come with free “incoming” mins, if I am making a call, I am paying for the “outgoing” call in some or other way (monthly/prepaid/peak-rate etc). I had not even accounted for charges for the “incoming call” mins for the destination party. So, I suggest you carefully read my previous response again.
So, I agree that I overlooked the precise rates for Truphone, but you have conveniently ignored the rates for TringMe. TringMe charges 1.32 cents per min to Spain landline and hence the total is 1.32*45 = 59.4 approx 60 cents…no connection fee, no other charges !! Even with Truphone rates, costs are less than whopping 540 cents charged by Jaxtr.
I think, we can go back and forth as much, but the fact-of the matter is that, anyway you slice it, Jaxtr is coming out to be more expensive and inconvenient for this feature !! ofcourse, redundant too with additional contact numbers !!!!
Among other things…we’re destined to disagree on the extra numbers point.
People save numbers in their mobile phones. With jaxtr, you simply go to your address book and hit talk. Additionally, people are apprehensive regarding downloading applications to their phones, and not everyone has Internet connectivity on their phones. The use of “any” phone is quite nice.
Sweet victory.
I love the fact that this conversation has deteriorated to a “who’s the cheapest” level. Proving what I say every time I weigh in: telco is a scale business.
The cheapest rates will be from the telco who has the greatest buying power.
Of course, rates are getting so low that the ability to differentiate on price alone is tough. The minutes business is a dreadful business. Congrats to you guys for $10M nonetheless.
tun k u je a je mi