Jaxtr gets sold, which mobile VoIP provider is next?

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For those outside of the VoIP industry, 2008 will go down as the year the great recession began. For those inside the industry, 2008 was the year Mobile VoIP grew in prominence.

A year ago at this time, news of a mobile VoIP provider being acquired would have garnered a ton of headlines. Today, there was barely a footnote mentioning the sale of Jaxtr to Sabse Technologies, an 18 month old start-up backed by Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia.

Jaxtr, like many other companies at the time, fell victim to the economy and the lack of an active revenue generation model forcing it to trim its operations.  Many at the time proclaimed it to be the begin of the end.

I took an optimist’s view. It seems that today’s news lands in between the two.

What then does this say about the mobile VoIP industry?

There’s still interest, but not at the same price as once before. The industry is still alive, but it looks a lot different than a year ago.

Front runner Truphone is still going strong. fring continues to add features, functionality and users. Skype for the iPhone was a huge hit, even with limited functionality.

But for those mobile VoIP providers that continue to forge ahead, others have decided on a new path. Companies like Mobivox and Numbuzz have looked to partner with carriers, rather than compete directly.

Others are no longer in business.

The sale of Jaxtr is only the beginning of the M&A activity that will be seen over the next 12 to 18 months within the mobile VoIP industry. As for predicting who’s next, my guess is as good as yours - but expect more than one deal to go down by the end of this year.