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New Vonage Mobile apps offer free smartphone to smartphone calling

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 09 Feb 2012 2:26 User comments (3)

New Vonage Mobile apps offer free smartphone to smartphone calling Vonage has released new mobile apps for iOS and Android offering free voice and texting throughout the world.
In 2010 Vonage expanded into Skype territory with a Facebook app to offer free calling to other Facebook users. Their new Vonage Mobile apps take this a step further by combining free app to app calling on iOS and Android with prepaid calls to other phones.

Voice calls and texts between Vonage Mobile clients are free, potentially allowing people who have dropped home phone service to save on wireless minutes. Calls made through mobile data connections will still count against your data plan. Of course you can avoid that when your phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Vonage Mobile works with your phone's existing address book. It will show you which contacts have Vonage Mobile accounts, and there's a SMS powered Invite feature (see the video below). To call a phone directly, instead of from app to app, you will need to buy credits. When you select a contact it will show you the per minute rate before you make a call.



Calling credits can be purchased directly within the app and go through the iTunes Store or Android Market. According to Vonage, their rates are "on average 70% less than major mobile carriers and 30% less than Skype2." Calls to Vonage home phone numbers are free.



There is a lot to like about Vonage Mobile, but they are taking on a formiddable competitor in Microsoft owned Skype. On the other hand, Vonage has a history of beating the odds. Since 2007 they have survived massive losses in patent lawsuits, competition from broadband provider VOIP offerings, and a radical shift to wireless in the telecom industry, while also weathering the worst economic climate in nearly a century.

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3 user comments

19.2.2012 15:23

hasnt this been done?

29.2.2012 16:35

Originally posted by A5J4DX:
hasnt this been done?

Weird as it may sound, no, it hasn't. This is something like facetime but multi-platform. And without video calling. At least, not for now.

The main difference between this service and others like Skype, Google Talk, Live Messenger, Fring or Viber is that the account is determined by the phone number, and that's all about it.

The very same principle is what turned whatsapp into an any-other-messenger killer despite of being a really crappy app. Why? The phones may be smart, but most of users are still dumb enough to not knowing how to choose the nickname and password needed to set up a service account.

310.2.2012 11:42

Yeah...........only practical for those grandfathered in on truly "Unlimited" data plans......of which they still get capped and this will probably become a data hog.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 10 Feb 2012 @ 11:42

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