Jajah has secured a sizeable strategic partner in it's quest to conquer global telephony markets - Intel.

Extremetech about the investment:

Intel said Wednesday that it has invested $15 million into Jajah, a VOIP service that connects phone users via a VOIP line.

Funds from the full round of $15 million will be used to accelerate the development of next-generation communication solutions on a global scale, Intel said. The funding was performed by Intel Capital, Intel's VC arm.

Jajah and Intel also entered into a business agreement that includes business and marketing components, the companies added. Intel will provide Jajah access to its extensive community of product dealers, OEM customers and developers to further Jajah's reach into global development communities.

Jajah's service connects users by using a VOIP line to bridge calls to wired and wireless phones. Users need to register for the free service online, then add the phone number closest to them. When a user "dials" a third-party number on the Jajah site, the service then rings the two numbers. Jajah-to-Jajah calls are free, although the service does charge per-minute rates for some overseas calls.

Jajah is a great service that simply works and has helped me mostly to so far to overcome ridiculously high internationl mobile call rates and low connection quality. It simply works (even if you need to try a couple of times sometimes).

I'm not yet sure though where the magic lies in the partnership with Intel - will there be the next processor with 'Jajah inside' - Jajah in a chipset? I always felt Jajah is less a tech play (after all there is nothing to install or software to use) then a clever marketing play. For me it's calling card on steroids - certainly more efficient and better but where does Intel add the extra spin here?