Vonage + iPhone: Match Made In Heaven

I have been skeptical about Vonage’s service for years now. Not due to Vonage providing me with bad service but for being burned by SunRocket only a month into a 2 year contract. Vonage has been very busy lately as it’s developed an iPhone app to target iPhone owners. Now it has introduced a new service plan to allow iPhone owners to make local, national, and some international calls on iPhone for $24.99 a month. Vonage World Mobile doesn’t require you to get a calling card or do anything special. It works over WiFi, so as long as you are connected to a network, you can use your iPhone and iPod Touch to take advantage of this service.

Skype is another service that is available to iPhone owners who want to make international calls on the go. The service is a bit less pricey but it doesn’t allow you to make calls to as many as 60 countries around the world for free. Here is how Vonage described its service:

Free unlimited local and long distance calling over WiFi with you iPhone®

Make unlimited international calls from your BlackBerry® from any cellular area in the U.S.

Make unlimited international calls from your iPod touch® in WiFi areas

I don’t know about you but I read “service pages” from bottom up. You certainly don’t want to sign up for a service without reading the footnotes and hidden costs associated with a service. Here are 3 major points that Vonage discloses in the footnotes on its website:

• The plan excludes certain call types, such as calls to cellphones, depending on destination
• Unlimited calling subject to personal non-commercial use.
• Taxes, Carrier roaming, SMS and cellular minutes may apply.

Vonage World Mobile and other similar services can certainly come in handy if you intend to make international calls from your mobile phone. I personally prefer ooma or Skype for business. Considering that Google is getting into this business, it’d be interesting to see where VOIP market winds up in 2010.

Your turn: any VOIP predictions for 2010?