Vonage Offers International Calls Free of Roaming Charges

Americans traveling abroad know well the painful experience associated with returning home to a hefty bill international cellular roaming charges. By some estimates half of all international travelers do not even use voice servicesfor fear of those dreaded high roaming costs.

Vonage, (NYSE: VG), a provider of communications services that connects individuals through cloud-connected devices worldwide, may have the solution. Recently Vonage introduced ReachMe Roaming™, a patented feature of its Vonage Mobile App® that allows U.S. travelers to receive free incoming calls to their existing cell phone numbers when connected to Wi-Fi anywhere in the world. As with most “free” offers, this one is for a limited time.

With ReachMe Roaming those wishing to reach the roaming phone simply call the traveler’s cell number to connect. There is no need to dial additional access numbers or provide a new phone number. U.S. customers can also make free calls back to the U.S., allowing seamless, two-way communication at no cost while traveling abroad.

Vonage has been granted three patents on ReachMe Roaming by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patents are U.S. Patent No. 8,571,060, U.S. Patent No. 8,600,364 and U.S. Patent No. 8,693,994. These patent share a common ancestry, with the ‘364 patent providing the earliest filing date, which was December 22, 2011. Both the ‘060 patent and the ‘994 patent are continuations in part of U.S. patent application Serial No. 13/492,361, filed Jun. 8, 2012, which is itself a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Serial No. 13/334,849, filed Dec. 22, 2011, which matured into the ‘364 patent.

The Detailed Description of the Invention from the ‘364 patent explains the invention in this way:

The invention provides a method, system and apparatus for terminating a telephony communication to a mobile telephony device that is roaming in such a way that roaming charges preferably are not incurred. To accomplish this, the telephony communication is routed through an Internet Protocol (IP) telephony system which is capable of terminating the telephony communication to the mobile telephony device in ways that do not incur roaming charges…

In some systems and methods embodying the invention, telephony communications are effected over a packet-based data network. Signaling that is conducted in the packet-based data network is preferably executed using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). SIP is a popular communication protocol for initiating, managing and terminating media (e.g., voice, data and video) sessions across packet-based data networks that typically use the Internet Protocol (IP), of which Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is an example…

SIP establishes and negotiates a session, including the modification or termination of a session. It uses a location-independent address system feature in which called parties can be reached based on a party’s name. SIP supports name mapping and redirection, allowing users to initiate and receive communications from any location…

“At Vonage, we are constantly innovating to meet consumer needs and address communications challenges,” said Grady Leno, Vice President of Product Management, Mobile Services. “We were among the first to provide a solution to roaming fees on calls made by international travelers back to the U.S. Now, we have eliminated roaming fees on calls received by U.S. travelers while abroad, providing them with a complete solution.”

Leno continued, “The ReachMe Roaming feature puts U.S. travelers in charge of roaming costs. Once activated, friends and family can reach travelers by simply dialing their cell phone numbers from any phone; callers don’t even need the Vonage Mobile App. All inbound calls to the traveler will ring within the app over Wi-Fi. This new feature, combined with Vonage Mobile’s free calling to any U.S. destination, allows U.S. travelers to remain in touch without the fear of coming home to a huge cell phone bill.”

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