Vonage subscribers in the U.K. will soon be able to make mobile phone calls over the Internet, the company said Wednesday.
U.S.-based Internet phone company Vonage and UK WiFi hotspot operator The Cloud have linked up to launch a service that will enable Vonage subscribers who have paid for a specially enabled WiFi mobile handset to make calls charged at landline rates from any of The Clouds hotspots in the UK.
When users get into an area covered by The Cloud's network, the special handset will pick up the signal allowing calls to be made. If users wander outside the zone, however, the call will be cut off, and they will have to revert to their traditional mobile handset and network to continue the call.
The calls are then routed over the net and will not cost any more than Vonage's standard rate of £7.99 a month residential tariff.
"It's really a wake-up call for the telecom market. It's saying there's really a much better, cheaper way of making calls," Vonage Managing Director Kerry Ritz told Reuters.
"This is the inevitable next stage in the voice-over-Internet protocol revolution," he added.
"Vonage users will access The Cloud's network via their WiFi phone as soon as they are within range," the internet telephony firm said today in a statement.
"There will be no password or user logon process; users will pick up the WiFi signal strength and be able to make and receive calls immediately,as part of the standard Vonage subscription there will be no additional charges."
The handsets cost around 80 pounds and are about the size of a large mobile phone.
The Cloud is also launching a number of city centre hot zones in Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Oxford, along with the London boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Camden, and Islington. It will be deploying a WiFi network across the entire Square Mile in London later this year.
It also beams its services to many of the UK's airports and major railway stations as well as coffee shops, hotels and university campuses.
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