Vonage Offers Free Calls to Subscribers

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

January 22, 2007, 5:13 PM

In an effort to continue its growth, VoIP provider Vonage is offering a new service that would allow anyone in seven countries to contact its customers worldwide for the price of a local call. In addition, the service would allow overseas customers to place calls to U.S. 1-800 numbers.

Vonage is the nation's largest VoIP provider, currently serving over two million subscribers. However, even in the face of success, the company continues to struggle financially. Vonage faced a disastrous IPO in May, and continues to lose money.

Thus, the company has attempted to expand its customer base through new service offerings, such as reselling EarthLink municipal Wi-Fi in a deal announced earlier this month.

For the new service, dubbed V-Access, local access numbers have been set up in the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain and the U.K. The solution would offer frequent travelers such as businessmen and college students to keep in touch with loved ones, as long as they are Vonage subscribers.

"Once again, we are proving that Vonage goes above and beyond the traditional phone carriers by offering our customers and their families another great, inexpensive way to stay in touch while on overseas business trips, study abroad programs or just vacation," CEO Mike Synder said in prepared remarks.

With V-Access, the company is betting that the potential savings for some may be an added incentive to subscribe to the service. It also sets Vonage apart from the competition, as larger telecommunications providers such as Verizon, and cable companies like Comcast have begun to offer their own VoIP services.