Vonage introduces an app that lets Facebook friends place free calls to each other over WiFi or 3G/4G networks using Apple iPhones, iPod Touches or Android smartphones.
Voice-over-IP provider Vonage is giving Facebook a voice, announcing Aug. 4 the
availability of an application that lets owners of iPhones, iPod Touches and
Android-running smartphones place free calls to Facebook "friends."
Free to use and download-it's available in the Android Market in 48
countries and in Apple's iTunes store in 87 countries-the Vonage Mobile App for
Facebook works over WiFi or 3G/4G networks.
To get started, download the application from either store or at vonage.com/talkfree. Enter
your Facebook ID and password, and views of your Facebook contacts will be
automatically loaded into the application.
"They'll be grouped by friends who can be called for free and friends
available for instant messaging on Facebook," Vonage explained in a
statement. "A Vonage logo will appear next to the names of friends who
have downloaded the app."
Users are invited to encourage their friends to download the application as
well. Once a friend is on the Call Free list, just click on his or name and a call
is placed, no dialing necessary. Even when the application is closed, the
user's phone will ring to alert him or her to the incoming call.
"The Vonage Mobile app for Facebook is a tangible example of our
commitment to deliver extraordinary value and a better communications
experience for individuals and their social networks, across broadband-enabled
devices, around the world," Vonage CEO
Marc Lefar said in a statement. "This is just the start. In the future we
will expand on this service to include a wide range of integrated voice and
messaging services that change the way people communicate."
Vonage, an early arrival on the VOIP scene, currently serves 2.4 million
subscribers. Facebook, by contrast, celebrated
its 500 millionth user on July 21. Voice-over-IP provider Vonage announced Aug. 4 the
availability of an application that lets owners of iPhones, iPod Touches and
Android-running smartphones place free calls to Facebook "friends."
Free to use and download-it's available in the Android Market in 48
countries and in Apple's iTunes store in 87 countries-the Vonage Mobile App for
Facebook works over WiFi or 3G/4G networks.
To get started, download the application from either store or at vonage.com/talkfree. Enter
your Facebook ID and password, and views of your Facebook contacts will be
automatically loaded into the application.
"They'll be grouped by friends who can be called for free and friends
available for instant messaging on Facebook," Vonage explained in a
statement. "A Vonage logo will appear next to the names of friends who
have downloaded the app."
Users are invited to encourage their friends to download the application as
well. Once a friend is on the Call Free list, just click on his or name and a call
is placed, no dialing necessary. Even when the application is closed, the
user's phone will ring to alert him or her to the incoming call.
"The Vonage Mobile app for Facebook is a tangible example of our
commitment to deliver extraordinary value and a better communications
experience for individuals and their social networks, across broadband-enabled
devices, around the world," Vonage CEO
Marc Lefar said in a statement. "This is just the start. In the future we
will expand on this service to include a wide range of integrated voice and
messaging services that change the way people communicate."
Vonage, an early arrival on the VOIP scene, currently serves 2.4 million
subscribers. Facebook, by contrast, celebrated
its 500 millionth user on July 21.
Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.
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