Last updated April 12, 2019
Vonage, the internet calling service, is updating its unlimited international calling packages to include cell phones.
On Wednesday, Vonage announced their Vonage Extensions; a service with, in essence, extends their land line service to include your cell phone. What this means for you is that if you subscribe to the Vonage World service package ($25.99), you will be able to make unlimited international calls of any length to any of the over 60 countries the package covers from your land line and to ten countries from your cell phone.
“About 50 percent of the international calls from the U.S. are made from a mobile phone,” said Mike Tempora, Vonage’s senior vice president of product management. “Most people use a calling card or pay high rates from a wireless carrier. So we felt this was a great opportunity to extend our service to these customers.”
Currently Extensions allows users to extend coverage to one cell phone number. Extra phone numbers can be added for a fee.
The way the Vonage land line service works is that it routes phones calls through a broadband connection. The call travels over IP networks until it reaches the destination’s local telephone networking. From there, the call is routed by a local carrier. With cell phones, it will work a bit differently. The user will enter a PIN followed by the international number they are calling. The length of the call is deducted from the user’s allotted domestic cell phone minutes.
The service works with smartphones as well as with standard cell phones.