Mountain View-based Jajah is scheduled to launch its free global calling service today. The free service applies to mobile phones and landlines in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Taiwan. The plan also includes landline calls in Australia, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and other European countries (I assume you can also call between all these countries for free). The free service only applies if both callers are Jajah users - if not, Jajah charges "less than 3 cents per minute" for the call. However, Jajah monitors the length of your calls and reserves the right to curtail excessive use, which sounds ominous.
To use Jajah, you just go to Jajah.com, register, and enter the number you want to dial. The service will call both phones and connect you. It's a great idea that offers a more accessible alternative to Skype.
At least, that's the theory. Unfortunately, Jajah is "upgrading" its service today, and you can't sign up. Hopefully we'll see a fix later.
