[September 9, 2004]

FoneFriend Grows VoIP Services

BY JOHANNE TORRES

When I was in college, it was evident that the real minority on campus were American students. We had a campus life composed of students from over 60 different countries—any VoIP service provider's dream! Back then, there was FoneFriend, (quote) my first experience with the closest thing to VoIP these days.

As we graduated and went on to afford our own broadband services in our rented apartments, VoIP also started growing up. FoneFriend's VoIP service has grown up since then as well. The company is now a public company, with headquarters in the in the heart of Beverly Hills, California. They have since then officially launched Voice over IP (VoIP) (define - news - alert - tutorial) service to U.S. subscribers.

The FoneFriend VoIP calling plan has certainly one of the lowest monthly fees I have seen in the market so far. The company is offering unlimited calls anywhere in the continental United States, Canada, Western Europe as well as portions of the Pacific Rim, for a flat monthly rate of $15.

In efforts to expand services globally, the company just announced it added on Argentina to its unlimited calling plan for all FoneFriend VoIP subscribers, starting this October.

FoneFriend President, Robin Glanzl, commented "The second-most common language in the United States today is Spanish, spoken by an estimated 28 million people, and this addition of Argentina to our Country Calling List reflects our desire to target the large Spanish-speaking communities within the United States with our low-cost telephone calling service. Many Spanish workers are low-income households who will truly appreciate the cost-savings of our service."

The service provider is on the road to expansion, as it develops a line of key partnerships. FoneFriend started by striking a tech support-like deal with InfiniCom Networks, Inc. InfiniCom Networks, Inc. sells FoneFriend new subscribers that include a 12 month revenue guarantee behind each agreement. In turn, FoneFriend contracts back to InfiniCom Networks, Inc. all of the network architecture, billing, call handling and customer support systems, thereby providing the public company with a low operating overhead and marketing costs.

Earlier this year, FoneFriend also teamed up with WinSonic Holdings, Ltd., a partnership said to enhance FoneFriend's ability to provide international and long distance communications services using WinSonic's co-location facilities at Level 3's fiber optic network center in Los Angeles, CA.