Vonage launches expanded international calling plan

Vonage may finally have seen its first profit ever of $1 million in the second-quarter of 2009, but it came with a net loss of 90,000  subscribers and a 3.2 percent rise in customer churn. To help stem the bleeding, the service provider announced this week that it will extend its international telephone service offering to 73 countries in an effort to curb ongoing subscriber loss, while keeping VoIP rivals Skype and Google at bay.

For $24.99 a month, users will be able to make unlimited international calls and convert voice mails to text form via technology from Nuance Communications. Beginning today, the new service will add India, China, Mexico and several others to the service. Vonage's current plan limits unlimited international calling to about 13 countries.   

Marc Lefar, Vonage's CEO, said he hopes the expanded service will appeal to new customers who want unlimited international calling and possibly prevent existing Vonage customers from canceling their service. In particular, Lefar believes the offering could be relevant to not only current AT&T and Verizon voice customers, but also international calling card users who require callers to remember cumbersome access codes.

"You don't have to be a particularly heavy user of international calling on a pay-per-minute basis to convert to our plan ... and see significant savings," Lefar said in a Reuters interview.

 For more:
- Reuters has this article

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