O2 UK launches it first JV with Jajah
O2 UK have just announced the first project with Jajah since their parent group Telefonica acquired the Mountain View based company.
I really like the look of these tariffs and this shows nice inventiveness from the team in O2UK and a nice integration of Jajah with a very simple activation path for customers.
If I were a Polish customer I can a local number (E.G. Warsaw) to my O2 account to enable my friends to call me for the cost of a local call, I can call 5 friends unlimited (5000 minute fair usage) for £15 per month.
I think with the right marketing into the correct segment this could do very well.
Inbound DID’s are provided in: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, USA.
Calls can be made to a destination in the following:
Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, USA, Vietnam.
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Pat, this seems very Jajah as “network flexibility” play. I’m a little underwhelmed with the strategic intent being displayed here. Or am I missing something really obvious?
My girlfriend is on O2 in Ireland, and I’m based in the Netherlands. This could save us a fortune if they brought it in in Ireland.
Hi Niall,
I’m not sure you need to be on O2-UK for this … in fact I’m not sure you need to be on O2 at all. It looks a lot like Jajah.DIRECT with an O2 sticker on the front. That is, whatever network you are on you can just visit http://www.jajah.com/products/direct and use exactly this service. It’s not clear to me what value O2 are adding here.
John.
@john
disagree here
if Niall’s girlfriend calls him he will incur a cost on the Jajah direct service of the termination to his mobile or fixed line number, with the new Jajah/O2 service a set fee covers all his costs
With Jajah direct its a variable.
This is:
1. o2 UK allowing their customers call International numbers, routed via JahJah’s already built infrastructure (ie o2 can start selling it NOW), for a fixed lump of cash every month. Guaranteed bums_on_seats.
2. Along with getting other JahJah customers that are already signed up with them.
3. Along with o2 being able to market their network to JahJah customers (hea..move to us and we’ll give you stuff).
4. It will a matter of time until o2 Ireland, o2 Czech, o2 Netherlands start offering this service too. (If Telefonica, ahem now Movistar, have any brains they will make it a requirement for their business units to do this.)
This is a major international operator starting to do (essentially) what Pat is doing – offer cheaper international calls, without the big PITA of calling cards/prefixes/etc.
Pat: I’d be interested to hear what you have to say, if you can.
thanks
Bernard
@Bernard
very nice comment
you nearly got it all right missed out on two
1. Jajah are giving a DID also to allow calls inwards
2. this is a million miles away from what we do, we sort out your roaming, this is attacking phone cards for non national market and is an excellent initiative.
Hi Pat,
Ah ok..also inbound DIDs, even better for the granny on the other side of the call.
Ok, the execution is different, but they are in the same business as you – making it cheaper for the end user. (And making your money at the same time, of course..!)
So no direct impact on your business. Good to hear. I am expecting to cash in on my Maxroam shares…
Do Jah-Jah only do voice? It’d be interesting to see them team up with a data provider too….
I’m feeling a bit thick here, but could 02 Group not have provided a “product offer” such as this with their existing infrastructure? Is this a Telco middleware issue?
I got to use iphone tethering from o2 yesterday when I was in a jam, and the set up and experience was seamless. Even for an idiot like myself. I say this by way of illustrating that if a service can be enabled and experienced really easily by the end user then that is very compelling to the vast majority.
Everyone has thick moments Paul. I have had mine for years
JahJah is VoIP for mobiles (ok and other things…but Telefonica only care about mobile really..).
JahJah have a VoIP infrastructure already built.
Telefonica don’t have to bother building one at all.
Walk in, give them cash, and start offering new services to their customers. Sit back and make the money.
Also: Telefonica (operating as Movistar and o2) operate in Europe, South America, Central America…
You can see the benefits to TF to offer long distance calls to the millions of Colombians/Bolivans/Argentinians living in Spain wanting to call home.
Also the thousands of Poles/Czechs/Latvians/etc living in other European countries.
You connecting your phone to o2-IEs data network a) doesn’t scale, b) costs you a fortune, c) allows you run VoIP (if they pass that traffic), taking money from o2′s mouth.
Much better to own a) the access network, b) the traditional voice network, c) the data network, d) the VoIP network.
Here o2 provide a service that anyone can use..and certainly people who don’t iPhones!
Hope that helps.
Hi Pat,
I’m not with you at all here. I can call my cousin at his fixed line in Australia on Jajah.DIRECT for €3.5cent (which is £3.2p) per minute. The O2-UK service will charge me £5 per month for ‘unlimited’ calls to that number. So unless I spend two and half hours per month on the phone to my cousin every month then O2-UK is just giving me a more expensive version of Jajah.DIRECT. The O2-UK fixed pricing would seem to be more expensive than Jajah.DIRECT variable pricing in the vast majority of cases. Also, giving DIDs for inbound calls seems of limited benefit also as this is an identical use case to the other party using Jajah.DIRECT too.
John.
@john
two and a half hours !!!!!!!
my Mrs would only be warming up
I think my missus is in the same bracket as yours Pat … but I think that O2-UK will have to try harder if their target market is people who spend three hours per month on the phone to the same number and find existing VoIP services too expensive!
By the way, Blueface already provide much the same service as Jajah.DIRECT using short code speed dials and it is less than half the price. Must do better O2!
You answered your own question there John (in my opinion).
You have to call your cousins fixed-line number. What happens if he/she is not there? You have to call back..
Also, with the number of landlines decreasing, Telefonica are looking to mobile only business (it makes sense since they operate in foreign countries as mobile operators).
Incoming DIDs are very handy as, your sick Granny/Dad/Mum can call you when they want-for a local call price.
I use Blueface’s great GoMobile service (local access number), but again, you have to use access codes/predial codes/short codes…Ok for me as I just save the number as a memory 015242029ppxxxxxxx
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the likes of Vodafone, Hutchison 3, and other international operators.
Bernard,
The new O2 service is just like Blueface GoMobile and just like Jajah.DIRECT. You can call any fixed line or mobile number. I just mentioned a fixed line case as an example. Similarly, your foreign Granny can use a Jajah.DIRECT number to call you just like the O2 service. I’m still waiting for someone to tell me the difference between the new O2 service and the existing Jajah service … apart from the fact that O2 require users to pay for two and a half hours of calls up front!
John.
I was so much excited when I first heard about offer, but O2 closed the registration for new customers. I was waiting n waiting n waiting for registration to open. It did, but the soul of this offer is missing! They now only accepts landline numbers! This is really a stupid decision from O2. I’m not going to get this bolt on unless they let me call mobile phones. If they increase the charge, that’s still okay. If they include mobile phones in this offer then there will be a rush for this. O2 will get thousands of new customers moved from other operators. Specially people like me who are from Bangladesh, India & Pakistan. I hope they realise this matter and change their mind soon.