Vonage Releases Calling App For IPhone, BlackBerry

PETER SVENSSON

NEW YORK (AP) — Vonage Holdings Corp., a pioneer in Internet-based home phone service, is launching applications for the iPhone and BlackBerry that undercut the international calling rates of major wireless carriers.

The free programs let users place calls that are routed over Vonage's network, at least for the international leg.

The calls are placed as local wireless calls, using up minutes on the cell phone plan, although the iPhone will use Wi-Fi instead if that's available. (That works as well on the iPhone's sibling, the iPod Touch, which goes online only with Wi-Fi.) Vonage then carries the calls to their overseas destination.

The fact that the Vonage app for the iPhone can use the cellular voice channel is unusual. Several other voice-over-Internet Protocol, or VoIP, apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch can already place calls over Wi-Fi. But Google Inc.'s Voice application, which is designed to use the cellular network, has not been approved.

Google says its Voice program was rejected by Apple for duplicating the built-in functions of the phone, and the Web search company implies that Apple is protecting the revenue stream of iPhone carriers like AT&T Inc. by not approving the application. Like Vonage's application, Google Voice provides low international calling rates.