We all know Vonage has a mobile app, but the company is not stopping there and has decided to make even a customer’s home phone mobile. While TruTower normally focuses on the mobile calling app, this new service actually does echo the app quite a bit, allowing for both national and international calls wherever a cellular smartphone is used.
The new mobile inbound calling functionality, standard on all Vonage home plans, is now part of the patented Vonage Extensions App, and it’s not just call forwarding like Google Voice‘s base services use. It’s actually using your family’s Vonage home phone. Calls made to the home phone number will ring through to the smartphones so anyone can take the call.
With the new service, inbound calls to the app indicate that the call was made to a user’s home number, and outbound calls are displayed with the home caller ID, both of which are very similar to Google Voice.
“When Vonage was founded in 2001, the Company helped shape a new form of communications – one that had no boundaries, delivered unprecedented value and forever changed the telecommunications industry,” said Joe Redling, president of Consumer Services for Vonage. “Today, we launched the next evolution of our service, combining the benefits and utility of a shared home identity with the value of low international calling rates, and the convenience of enabling customers to extend the cordless phone they use in their homes to their mobiles.”
Mobile outbound calling using Extensions has become increasingly popular with Vonage customers since its launch in 2011, especially among international callers. In the second quarter of 2014 alone, 29% of all outbound international calls on the Vonage network were made using a mobile Extension.
“Enabling two-way mobile calling will drive even more mobile usage of our service and change the way people think about and use their home phone”
“Vonage has seen a dramatic shift in consumer behavior since we first gave customers the ability to make calls from their mobiles,” Mr. Redling added. “Enabling two-way mobile calling will drive even more mobile usage of our service and change the way people think about and use their home phone.”
Residential service customers can download the Extensions app to their iPhone or Android smartphone. Calls can be made over WiFi or on 3G or 4G mobile networks. Because it uses WiFi calling, you can even potentially use your home phone number via WiFi while traveling in other countries, a perfect supplement to travel SIM cards and roaming services. It also improves coverage within homes.
Over the past three years, Vonage has received 17 patents related to mobile services covering products such as Vonage Extensions, the aforementioned Vonage Mobile app we know so well, the company’s ReachMe Roaming service, and its video voicemail feature. The Company currently has 93 U.S. patent applications pending related to mobile technologies.
Some highlights of the new plan:
- Unlimited international calling to more than 60 countries is available through the Vonage World plan. Reasonable Use Policy applies.
- Data rates apply.
What do you think of the new Vonage Extensions? Post your thoughts in the comments!