Vonage App Update Allows Customers Full Use of Service through Smartphones

By Christopher Mohr
TMCnet Contributing Writer

Vonage (News - Alert) announced yesterday that customers using its home phone service will be able to place and receive calls through that same service using a smartphone. The latest upgrade to the Extensions app essentially makes the smartphones using it, function as separate landline phones with the same number.

Extensions uses the phone’s contact book to display caller ID information and to facilitate outgoing calls. Up to two smartphones can be setup through the app to ring when someone calls a Vonage home phone number and shows that same number’s caller ID when making outgoing calls. This is a nice convenience around the house, especially when the Vonage home phone rings and you can’t easily get to it.

What it also means is that you can take your Vonage phone service with you practically anywhere as long as you have a Wi-Fi or 3G/4G connection. It sounds great, but why would anyone really need this when a smartphone with a plan that supports Wi-Fi calling does essentially the same thing?

One reason is that Wi-Fi calling is not available for all carriers yet. AT&T and Verizon won’t offer it until next year. Sprint currently offers the service, but it is not available on the iPhone (News - Alert) and what service exists has been criticized for poor coverage outside big cities.

Another reason is that Extensions’ Wi-Fi calling lets users avoid roaming charges when traveling to other countries. Users can also conceal their mobile phone number if they want to.

One caveat is that whenever Extensions use a 3G/4G connection to make or receive a call, mobile plan data rates and limitations will apply.

Skeptics will counter by pointing out that Skype (News - Alert) in some cases may be less expensive to use; supports incoming and outgoing calls to and from other phone numbers using Wi-Fi or 3G/4G and is available on iPhone, Android and Windows Phone (News - Alert) 8. However, if you need Vonage’s feature that rings multiple smartphones on incoming calls or are already a heavy Vonage user, this is a less compelling argument.

Vonage’s upgrade to the Extensions app provides its customers who have smartphones many nice conveniences. It is an important change that acknowledges a shift in customer behavior. The company found through its own research that 29 percent of international calls made through its service used Extensions to do so. Upgrading the Extensions app is an adjustment Vonage had to make to remain relevant in a world gone mobile.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi