Heard from the grapevine that Jajah has announced a partnership with Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent, recently.  The deal is part of  a USD20 million investment, in partnership with Intel Capital and T-Online Venture Fund, the venture capital unit of Deutsche Telekom.                             

This is the first time a major phone company has decided to support a VoIP start-up, understandable since internet calling services will allow consumers to bypass conventional voice networks.  ”This is the first time a major carrier is coming downstream to partner with a consumer web-calling player,” Jajah chief executive Trevor Healy said.  Although, analysts say Jajah’s approach is the most friendly to telecoms carriers, in part because it allows people to use their conventional phones.

Deutsche Telekom said it had begun embedding Jajah into its T-Online web properties and that it expected to offer calling services to consumers and businesses in the future.  Deutsche Telekom, which operates big fixed-line, mobile phone (T-Mobile) and broadband services (T-Online) in Europe and the United States, sees working with Jajah as a way to meet the threat of cannibalization to its existing businesses.

“The communication landscape is rapidly evolving,” chairman of investment committee of T-Online Venture Fund Andreas Kindt said in a company statement.  ”By investing in companies like Jajah, we will be able to continue to bring users around the world the innovative solutions they are looking for.”

The recent launch of T-Mobile’s “Wing” also has Jajah excited.  Like the Apple iPhone and the LG Prada phone, the Wing, like any smartphone with a browser, will allow Jajah to directly make free or low cost global long distance calls without needing to install any client.  You can see a prototype of Jajah running on the Wing by accessing http://blog.jajah.com/.  My next posting will tell you more of the Wing’s features and services.  Watch for it!

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