Vonage emailed me last week letting me know about their App for the iPhone. So I gave it a run, test it for a week, made calls and for the time being, calling within the U.S is free. When you first download the app, you have to register the number you are using it with, such as your iPhone number. You will get a 5 digit text message code to confirm that it is indeed your phone that you are associating Vonage with and from there, it will download your contacts and the app will figure out from there if any of the users from your contact list is registered to Vonage or not.
The app does exactly the same as Skype, call to POTS, free call to other Vonage users, and Text message. The one less thing Vonage can’t do is Video Call.
Vonage Mobile at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vonage-mobile-free-international/id491391564?mt=8 (iTunes Link)
Vonage claim to be cheaper than Skype when making international calls. How they charge you per minute is based on the credits you buy off iTunes. Either $4.99 or $9.99 credits. I tried the lowest just for testing purposes. But it doesn’t matter if you buy more credits, it doesn’t mean it will be cheaper. It just deducts from your iTunes Account and apply it to the calls or text message you made with.
During my call on Wi-Fi at home, it was pretty clear at most. During a 10 minute conversation, there was just one occasion for about 10 seconds where it would garble like a digital distortion, but I was still able to make up what the other party was saying and they didn’t have a hard time hearing me. During my week test, I pretty much called most of my friends and family with it. There isn’t any complaint yet, and none of my friends are on Vonage, so I can’t test the call quality of Vonage to Vonage. You may check out more information on their website at vonage.com for rates on calls and text messages.
Since Vonage can’t do Video call, the comparable app to this would be Talkatone. In order for Talkatone to work, you need to register with Google Voice and get a number from Google Voice. Then you can use Talkatone as Google Voice calling app since Google Voice don’t have a calling app for the iPhone, Talkatone will do. Just like Vonage, Talkatone can do calls to POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) and text messages. Talkatone can also make calls to Google Talk users. The range of calling with Talkatone is greater than Skype or Vonage since it’s integrated for GTalk.
I used to be a Vonage users, about two years ago. I use it mainly for International calls as well as home phone. So it’s a good use if you have your friends who uses Vonage monthly at home, you can make free calls to them. If your friend calls you from their Vonage device at home, they too will make the free calls.
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