Vonage (NYSE: VG) continues to expand its international calling horizons with a new option that lets subscribers to its Extensions service plan add another line.
Priced at $9.99 a month, the new second extension option enables Vonage customers to make international calls using its signature unlimited international calling plans from up to two additional phones, including mobiles, creating a virtual family plan.
Set on appealing to U.S. customers who have relatives in other countries, the new service builds off of Vonage's new World Premium Unlimited calling plan that provides unlimited calling to 80 countries, including unlimited calling to mobile phones in 42 countries.
Michael Tempora, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Vonage, in an interview with FierceTelecom said that while World Premium Unlimited calling plan was resonating well with customers, they wanted to add a second line to the plan.
"We have created a new extension, which could be your mobile phone, and now you can add an additional extension to allow your spouse, or your college age child to keep in touch with your family internationally," he said. "It was giving our customers what they wanted, which was an international family plan for international calling."
Similar to the World Premium Unlimited plan, Vonage is emphasizing the ability to call mobile phones. What often hindered Vonage subscribers from calling outside of certain time windows were high per-minute rates.
"International callers are becoming a larger part of our base," Tempora said. "Fifteen percent of the US population are foreign born or second generation that are international callers, and that's a growing population and international calling is growing so this is a prime target for us."
Creating new offerings such as Extensions and establishing partnerships with big box retailers, including Sears and Kmart, are key moves for Vonage. These options will help it build a foundation to stay on par with a growing group of savvy competitors, including Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), 8x8 (Nasdaq: EGHT), and magicJack that offer similar low-priced VoIP services to consumers.
For more:
- see the release
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