Back in early September we saw the official announcement in regards to the Vonage Mobile app and in some good news, that app is now available in the App Store.
As far as what this app can do, I will say that I was initially a little disappointed. Personally, I had been hoping more for an account management type of tool, for example, something that would allow me (as a current Vonage customer) to check my voicemail. That said though the app does have a good purpose as well as an interesting feature.
According to the official description, the Vonage Mobile app will allow you to “make international calls at incredibly low rates.” It does however require you to be a current Vonage customer, and as a little side note — if you are setting this up on your iPhone (or iPod touch) try and do so when it is not 4 in the morning and others are trying to sleep, because you will have to receive a call on your home Vonage line and enter a 4-digit pin to confirm setup.
Anyway, in regards to that interesting feature, the Vonage Mobile app will work on both Wi-Fi and 3G, in other words, it is not limited to Wi-Fi calling only like the Skype app. Additionally, the app also has a section to display recent calls, a numeric keypad (that is very dark and unique looking), a stream of Vonage related tweets and easy access to your iPhone contacts.
Overall the app seems to work well, although I will say that I have only used it on a very limited basis. In terms of downloading and using, the app is made to work with both the iPhone and iPod touch and just to prove that there are two separate versions.
Finally, both versions are available as free downloads and come with a $1 credit to begin using the app.
[Vonage Mobile for iPhone] and [Vonage Mobile for iPod touch]
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November 6th, 2009 at 2:21 am
Why Vonage Mobile is Unnecessary
Recent release of Vonage Mobile® application on the Iphone and Blackberry has caused a lot of excitement among bloggers, Iphone and Blackberry users and the news media. What is little known to everybody is that with the installation of a small hardware on the Vonage World® line, Vonage Mobile® becomes unnecessary. Everybody was waiting for a Vonage World® version that would work on their cell phones. What we got was just a cheaper calling card that works only on an expensive smart phone – the Iphone or the Blackberry. Using an Iphone, we have a choice of operating it on a 3g network, WiFi or regular cellular network. With the Blackberry, we can only use the regular cellular network. When we run it on a 3g network, we incur an additional $20 monthly fee. When we run it on a regular cellular network we pay for expensive air time and long distance charges. When we choose to go with WiFi we have to seek out hotspots, which are not readily available. It is also inconvenient that we must anticipate and prepay for these services. There is no need for any of these if we already have a Vonage World® account. We can extend our Vonage World® account to our cell phones now. Here’s how:
You subscribe to a cellular plan which has either free incoming calls or free calls to and from favorite numbers. You designate your Vonage® number as a favorite number. This gives you free unlimited air time calling to and from that number. Even as heavy cell phone users, you can sign up for the minimum $49 per month plan and slash your monthly bill by half and still make free unlimited air time and long distance calls.
To illustrate how Vonage World® can be accessed manually by any cell phone user using the regular cellular network, let us say you have somebody (your wife) at home where your Vonage World line is installed. You call your Vonage® line (or have your wife call you from the Vonage® line), your wife answers and you tell her to transfer the call to another number which could be domestic (all USA and Canadian numbers are transferable) or international (some countries like India, China, Malaysia are transferable). Your wife will tap the hook switch (flash), put you on hold and get another dial tone. She then dials “#90” (to tell Vonage® it is a transfer call), the country code, city code and the telephone number. Vonage® will automatically transfer the call to connect you directly to the destination number. Vonage® will send your wife a stutter dial tone and a long dial tone to signal her to hang up and free up the Vonage® line. Your son (friend, employee, etc.), using their own cell phone, can repeat the process and be connected to their destination number at the same time you are using the system. Of course it is not practical for your wife to do all these things for you even if you are saving a bundle. What you can do is install a telecommunication switch such as the DialMate CM1003 on your Vonage® line and have it perform all these functions for you. With this combination you can place the cheapest domestic and international calls from your cell phone. As an added bonus, the people you call in those 60 flat-rate-calling-countries can also use your Vonage World® line to call those 60 countries for free and most importantly, using an ordinary cell phone or landline, without a broadband connection.
® Vonage Holdings Corporation Registered Trademark