Vonage Makes VOIP Mobile

Vonage is rolling out its Vonage Pro VOIP offering designed to enable mobile workers and home workers bring their phone systems with them on the road.

Vonage Pro includes the next-generation Vonage SoftPhone client, called Vonage Companion, which lets users access their home numbers from any desktop with a high-speed Internet connection. Vonage Companion also offers such features as selective call blocking, conference calling, personalized ring tones and call recording.

The new offering is part of the company's MyVonage initiative, which was unveiled in January and is aimed at creating products and services based on customer requests. It comes at a time when businesses are seeing a much more mobile work force.

Vonage Pro, which is primarily a consumer technology that offers benefits for workers who travel or work at home, became available July 31.

Mary Grikas, executive director of device development for Vonage, said the company is trying to develop offerings through the MyVonage program that will keep customers from jumping elsewhere.

"Low price doesn't develop customer loyalty," Grikas said, adding that people who are only interested in low prices will jump from vendor to vendor. "Vonage is looking for loyalty."

Vonage Pro is part of that push.

"It's not [entirely] a business thing, but we certainly get a lot of interest from business people who travel a lot. [With Vonage Pro], the home becomes your office, or the airport in Tokyo becomes your office," Grikas said.

With Vonage Pro, incoming calls ring both the user's home phone and his or her Companion. Customers can use the built-in microphones and speakers in the computer, and Companion automatically syncs with Vonage Contact Center to keep contacts up-to-date.