magicJack inventor and founder Dan Borislow has just unveiled another industry first: the smallest, lowest cost, plug and play femtocell technology.
“We believe our technology might be the only one that makes sense for any telephone operator to deploy. With over five million magicJacks in the hands of consumers and business owners across the globe, magicJack users create a massive network that will be available via the femtocell technology,” Borislow said in the press release.
magicJack’s femtocell technology enables your cell phone or smart phone to connect through the company’s Voice Network, instead of your carrier network. By utilizing majocJack’s network via a magicJack account ($20 a year), you may save hundreds and even thousands of dollars a year by offsetting cellular minutes. In addition, when calling internationally, customers will save anywhere from 95-100 percent off current cellular carrier rates. Up to 50 percent of mobile users have terrible phone reception in their houses or small businesses. With femtocell technology, people can get clear quality voice calls every time.
This femtocell will work with mobile phones from potentially any carrier and you may even use an old GSM cell phone without any paid service plans with a carrier. Not only can people connect to their own magicJack device but they can also connect to other femtocell-enabled magicJacks at friends’ houses and businesses. All the user has to do is come within eight feet of the magicJack one time to register the connection and then talk away within a range of a 3,000 square foot house.
Said Borislow in the press release, “We believe our technology might be the only one that makes sense for any telephone operator to deploy. With over five million magicJacks in the hands of consumers and business owners across the globe, magicJack users create a massive network that will be available via the femtocell technology.” The femtocell product will first be available to magicJacks’ existing customer base.
The YMAX Voice Network has supported magicJack with complete reliability as its growth scaled to 200,000 new customers per month in 2009. Our parent company YMAX designed the network to be the lowest cost and highest quality voice network in the industry with more switches/gateways (50 plus) and more session border controllers for security than any other telecom company. YMAX is certified in all 50 states and has the largest breadth of area codes in the country.
In the past two years, magicJack has sold over five million magicJacks. These plug and play devices can replace home or business phone service for just $20 a year by providing free local and long distance, free voice mail, your own phone number and many other features. Since its launch, the magicJack has received numerous product of the year awards. magicJack is adding 8,000 new customers a day and is sold in almost every major retailer and online.
Source: YMAX Corp.
[Attribution: Associated Press. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
I hope there is a shot for that….
How is this little company escaping assassination by the communication monoliths?
Their service is a little shady my friend bought a magic jack and it would always cut him off at a certain time and then eventually they shut his service off for excessive use, so taking things like this into consideration the company is not perfect so still under the radar of the “monoliths.”
It looks like this is GSM only and sounds like you have to change the SIM to use the service (they claim most users will use this with an old phone).
http://www.pcworld.com/article/186308/magicjack_harnesses_femtocell_for_voip.html
DOES IT REALLY WORK AND WHAT ABOUT MAGIC JACK I ALWAYS FELT IT WAS JUST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
Does anybody know if they’re also developing fembots?
My dad loves his. When he calls I can’t tell he is on it. Would I get it, no. But he seems happy with it.
I just got off of MagicJack chat. Femtocell is NOT yet available and they have no idea when. (Chat agent also had no good guess on who was going to win the Super Bowl;-)
I then considered buying a regular MagicChat to replace my landline while waiting for ATT to get off their ASS and release the Microcell nationwide. Researched Amazon reviews. 2.5 stars out of 5. I’ll pass.
I have tried MagicJack for over a year, maybe 100 calls made … probably 80 % of the time you could hardly carry on a conversation. You get what you pay for.
…. footnote to previous post … I actually had purchased two of them with a lapse in time between purchases … hence, I have used the service for more than a year although I did not resubscribe to either of them and have let them lapse.
I just installed the MagicJack this weekend. My wife (we are in SoCal) called her sisters in Maine and Florida. It works just as well as the Cable Companies VOIP. We had a HP desktop (XP PRO) that was not doing anything, so I installed it on there and plugged in the base of the cordless phones and It works. Even after a re-boot, without logging in. So far I would say it is worth it.
I tried MagicJack for about two weeks. It stunk up the joint.
check out nettalk.com . Like magic jack but don’t plug into your computer and cheaper. i have one and works great
Not sure where to go with this.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=magicjack+scam&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Wheres Billy Mays when you need him? LOL
cmon MDN, what’s next sham-wow! updates?
I had two MagicJacks: one for me and one for my daughter in college in Chicago. Does not play well with Macs, but with Windows OS okay, I hear. Customer service is non-responsive and a joke at times. Went with Skype and Skype works wonderfully and it’s Mac friendly.
A good idea, maybe, but poor execution. Someday, we may not be using the monoliths so much, but that’s not today.
I have had a MajicJack for 6 months now and it’s a great deal for the little money required.
• Yes, there are times when portions of calls drop out.
• Yes, there is no phone when the power or internet is out.
• Yes, long distance is free!
• Yes, it does work with Macs (10.5.8 and 10.6)
For the $20 bucks a year that it costs, it’s a steal compared to what my local phone company was charing for POTS!
I have a majicJack.
It is for my majicBus.
I would show them but they are invisible….along with my majicMoney.
I have used MagicJack for over a year with only minor problems… very minor considering the price vs. regular landline phone companies’ pricing. Worked okay on my MacMini – not at all on my iBook (PowerPC not supported, only Intel) – worked best on my wife’s PC. Will this new cellular Magic Jack be a good deal with my iPhone? Have to wait and see – right now, I don’t think I use my cell enough at home to justify dropping my AT&T;plan to save the $$… I’ll look at it closer when (and if) it gets released; I read another article about it questioning the legality of home use celluar spectrum radio waves, or something to that effect.
Quality of MagicJack is passible, but just don’t be uploading anything on your data connection at the same time! If starved for bandwidth, voices disintegrate into weird tones.
Also, even when it’s working fine, the recipient of a MJ call hears every minute or two, a DTMF tone as if the caller is bumping the touchtone buttons.
I have been a client of MajidJack for the past 1year and 1/2. It has worked for me 100% of the time while calling US long distance, local, and Canada.
The only failures have been during calls to overseas.
I would like to hear this service shacking the system up with their prices. AT&T;, Verizon, Spring, and other have really been cashing in on any occasion they could screw the consumer.
55% of the time, it works every time.