Yahoo to Hand Over Messenger VoIP to Jajah

Yahoo to Hand Over Messenger VoIP to Jajah

by Mark Hachman

Yahoo said Tuesday that it will outsource its Yahoo Messenger VoIP calls to Jajah beginning in the third quarter.

At press time, it was not known whether the switch will be transparent to users, or whether Jajah will insist upon its own branding. As of now, the two models are relatively similar: users prepurchase a number of credits, and then spend them to pay for outgoing and inbound calls from the PC.

Jajah competes with Skype, among others. Now, however, Jajaj gains access to Yahoo Messenger's 97 million users. Skype claims 276 million users, according to a company presentation posted online.

"The seamless integration of web and voice interaction is clearly important to our strategic partner, Yahoo!," said Trevor Healy, Jajah's chief executive, in a statement. "We are honored to be selected by Yahoo! to meet their voice needs. Through this relationship, we have the opportunity to extend our innovative global calling services with an industry leader that can leverage the power of our platform and network."

However, the change could affect the rates users will be charged. Currently, Yahoo charges a penny a minute to be connected to a U.S. landline; Jajah charges 2.9 cents per minute. On the other hand, Yahoo charges 20.5 cents per minute to call a mobile phone in the U.K., while Jajah only charges 18.9 cents to that same line. Yahoo has not said whether it will subsidize the new service via ads.

Jajah will also take over the provision of the telephony infrastructure, payment processing, and customer care for Yahoo's premium voice users, the companies said.