[January 5, 2005]

Vonage UK Service: A Hidden Project?

BY JOHANNE TORRES

This morning, I stumbled upon Vonage.co.uk’s Web site—a portal for Vonage’s services for the United Kingdom. I immediately began to search for any official announcements regarding this new service, and came out empty-handed. I couldn’t find any press releases -- strange thing, because the company has been making sure its every move gets covered by the press by posting all announcements everywhere. I have to hand it to them this time, though, the secret was well kept.

The company launched this new service last month. Vonage UK has two different calling plans:

• Residential Unlimited Plan: Users can make unlimited local and national calls anywhere in the UK and Ireland for £9.99 (US$18.76) a month.
• Small Business Unlimited Plan : Users get unlimited local and national calling anywhere in the UK and Ireland plus a free fax line with 500 local and national minutes for £18.99 (US $35.64) per month.

Both plans provide users with access to public emergency call services. When the caller dials either 999 or 112, the call is routed from the Vonage network to national emergency operators who will handle the call. The emergency operator will ask for specific information to correctly transfer the call. Users will need to promptly and clearly state the nature of their emergency, their location and phone number, and any other requested information. The emergency operator will then route the call to the appropriate emergency agency, such as: Police, Fire Brigade, Ambulance, Coastguard, Mountain Rescue, or Cave Rescue. Vonage makes it clear that 999/112 Emergency Services don’t function during an electrical power or broadband provider outage, or if the user’s Vonage account has been suspended or terminated.

Vonage UK will offer the following free features: Voicemail Plus, Caller Display, Call Waiting, Call Diversion, Three Way Calling, Vonage to Vonage Calls, Traveling with Vonage Call Transfer, Click to Call, Last Number Received Call Back, International Call Blocking, Ring Lists and Follow Me. Vonage UK will offer users the ability to have Virtual Numbers for calling outside of the user’s dialing code or country, a softphone, and a fax service for an extra monthly fee.