“Millions of people around the world already have an iPod touch in their pocket. With JAJAH’s solution, any company can turn their customers’ iPod touch into a fully functioning mobile phone,” said Trevor Healy, CEO, JAJAH. “The device is particularly popular amongst students, who live in a world where Wi-Fi access is always available and, like everyone, they are looking to save costs, so this is a perfect solution.”

JAJAH’s next generation IP communications platform gives its partners everything they need to launch the service immediately. This includes the application itself, plus the entire suite of management services, from termination of the calls and quality control, right through to billing and processing payments in 200 countries around the world.

Anyone with the latest version of the iPod touch will be able to download the service from the Apple App Store. With a microphone headset (available from Apple), users will immediately be able to make calls and send SMS messages from their device from any Wi-Fi network in the world. Calling costs will be up to 98 percent cheaper than existing rates on mobile networks, and in many cases could be free.

“Intel and JAJAH have a common objective to deploy technology building blocks that deliver a richer communication experience for consumers,” said Joe Van De Water, Director of Consumer Product Marketing for Intel. “Intel is delighted to be working with JAJAH on its latest offering, which supports Intel Remote Wake technology. The combination of our technologies enables added convenience and energy efficiency for consumers who want the PC to be a genuine two-way communication platform for their IP-based telephony services.”

In addition to enhanced telephony access for consumers, PCs with JAJAH and Intel’s Remote Wake capability can deliver ‘real’ energy saving benefits for consumers. Select Intel Motherboards with support for Intel Remote Wake technology will be available next month.

Developed with support from IBM Research, you can dial a local number, say your message in English and hear it back Chinese. The service also works in reverse for Chinese speakers who wish to have a statement translated into English. Additional language support is set for release in the coming months.

“JAJAH was built to bring down barriers to global communication through high quality, low-cost calls available from any phone, any network, anywhere. And now with JAJAH Babel, we are removing the language barrier and providing a valuable service to anyone traveling to Beijing this summer,” said JAJAH Co-founder Daniel Mattes. “We are very excited about this project and our ongoing innovations with IBM, a company that has a history of producing products and services that change the world.”

How does JAJAH Babel work? From English to Chinese or in reverse:

• Dial JAJAH Babel from any phone. U.S. local access number: +1-718-513-2969
• Choose which language you want your message translated into (either English to Chinese or Chinese to English)
• Say your message and press #
• You will be able to confirm that your message was properly understood by the system.
• The message will automatically be played back in Chinese. If you wish, simply hand your phone to the other person or put the phone on loudspeaker so they hear the message.
• The other person can then record a message in Chinese, following the steps above, and you will hear their message in English.

The partnership leverages JAJAH’s open, next-generation communications platform to support the existing Yahoo! Messenger voice offering beginning in the third quarter of this year.

“This partnership with JAJAH will help Yahoo! continue to provide a great communication experience to our millions of Yahoo! Messenger users,” said Sabrina Ellis, vice president of Yahoo! Messenger. “Yahoo! Messenger is one of the first communication tools consumers see and use when they turn on their computers, so it is critical that our partner mirror our commitment to our users, and JAJAH’s reliable VoIP network and proven customer- and carrier-friendly experience make it an ideal solution.”

Since 2006, Yahoo! Messenger users have been able to use “Phone In” and “Phone Out” to make and receive voice calls on their PC to and from landline and mobile phones.

The new JAJAH Mobile VoIP client for the iPhone will enable two ways to make free or low-cost global calls to any phone in the world: 1) JAJAH’s callback service ideal for low bandwidth locations and 2) the sole use of a Wi-Fi network. With Wi-Fi support, all international and long-distance callers will be able to place calls via airport hotspots, coffee shops or any other desired Wi-Fi location.

All third-party Apple iPhone applications will be made available exclusively through the Apple App Store which can be accessed over-the-air on the iPhone itself, or loaded via iTunes on a computer. Until the date of the new VoIP application release, users can already enjoy JAJAH’s existing callback service through http://iphone.jajah.com