A leading provider of communications services connecting individuals through broadband devices worldwide including smartphones, Vonage (News 
- Alert), in a possible challenge to Skype, announced today that it will now allow its customers to extend their Vonage home calling plans to any phone – including mobiles – with the new “Extensions” offering, free to all Vonage customers.
Customers using Vonage's unlimited international calling plans will now be able to call friends and family abroad from their mobile phones.
“Vonage World set the benchmark for unlimited international calling,” said Marc Lefar (News - Alert), CEO of Vonage, in a release. “Now new and existing customers can call these unlimited countries on their mobile phones for no additional cost.”
“This new service dramatically increases the value of Vonage's core offering, providing customers with more flexibility and savings when making international calls.”
Skype’s service is available on smartphones and feature phones from Verizon (News - Alert). Extensions will make Vonage’s service available on less expensive devices.
By logging into their account, current Vonage customers can add any U.S. phone number as an extension – the extension number can be a cell phone, a home phone, or an office number. According to the company, once registered, the service works like a virtual calling card with callers simply dialing the access number and international destination number. The call is connected over the Vonage network.
Vonage has indicated plans to offer downloadable apps for iPhone and Android (News - Alert) devices, enabling one-touch dialing directly from a contact list, in the coming weeks.
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John Lahtinen is Community Development Editor for TMCnet. He has more than 15 years of combined professional and educational experience involving news, education, and marketing. John holds a master's degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree in English from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
