JumperTel wants to take on Skype from scratch with VoIP service

A new US company called JumperTel has launched a VoIP phone which it hopes will rival Skype. It costs $12 a year for unlimited calls to other JumperTel phones, and the special phones cost just $21.99. It claims an edge over Skype with improved voice quality and email based customer care and idiot-proof installation.

The phone has a plug and play, self install, set of drivers, like most USB cards, and will install itself by just plugging it into your laptop. Upgrades to this are downloaded to the phone, not the PC it is attached to, when you are on calls, and happens without the customer knowing anything about it.

The aim is to target long distance and international callers. So far there is no similar service announced with it like Skype Out, whereby you can call fixed telephone numbers on mobile and landline networks, but we would expect that it is only a matter of time. Each JumperTel phone has its own number. Assuming that JumperTel uses the SIP protocol, which every VoIP service except Skype uses, then it will be routing traffic through a SoftSwitch and it’s not such a big deal to route that traffic out to a fixed line carrier, convert it from VoIP to switched traffic and then into the international telco network, it just needs enough traffic to make it worth someone cutting JumperTel a deal.

Right now the phones work with Windows XP and Vista with at least a 400 MHz processor and a free USB port. The PC needs 128 MB RAM and 15 MB free disk space, and an internet connection of at least 33.6 Kbps. Apple Mac compatibility is coming soon the company says. That means it will work with pretty much any PC out there.

JumperTel claims that it offers better clarity than Skype, which let’s face it isn’t difficult, which it achieves, it says, with echo cancellation and noise reduction and says that its handset is sleek like a mobile.

“We wanted to provide a solution that anyone and their grandmother could use,” said Dennis Barnum, COO of JumperTel. “Calling cards are troublesome with small print, the need to track amounts and minutes…and Skype is just too complex or intimidating for many to try out. We remove all the complexity - just plug it in and dial.”

There is a choice of ring tones, a display that can be switched to the language of your choice, a Caller ID feature, speed dial and an onboard address book. JumperTel is owned by Optimo Commercial Investments, based in Madison, Wisconsin.