MVNO Kajeet goes live with service

Tween-focused mobile virtual network operator Kajeet Inc. has begun selling phones and service via its Web site, with coverage maps that appear to match up with the Sprint Nextel Corp. network.
The MVNO is offering three handsets, all of them flip-phones: the 225 from LG Electronics Co. Ltd., the blue Sanyo Corp. Katana and the Nokia Corp. 6165i. Handset prices range from $70 for the Nokia and LG handsets to $100 for the Sanyo Katana.
Kajeet is a pay-as-you-go service, with rates for local and long-distance calls at 10 cents per minute, plus a daily access charge of 35 cents. Text messages are 5 cents to send and receive, picture messages are 25 cents. Kajeet offers unlimited monthly instant messaging for $7 per month. The service requires no contract and no activation fee.
The MVNO’s Web site also touts a variety of content and applications, including Google Maps for mobile and games based on characters from Nickelodeon television shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants. Games start at $5 apiece, and the company noted as an assurance to parents that “every game available to a Kajeet phone is age-appropriate.”
The company’s Web site went live last week, but Kajeet has not yet made its retail launch. A spokesman for the MVNO declined to make any additional comments on the company’s immediate plans.
Kajeet raised $27 million in its first venture-capital funding round at this time last year. The MVNO’s name is a combination of the first letters of the founders’ children’s names.