Vonage, which offers flat rate broadband Voice over IP telephone service here in the States, is shipping a bunch of their Analog Telephone Adapter boxes to Iraq so that soldiers there can make free phone calls to their families during the holiday season. SkyFrames is providing the wireless satellite Internet connection.
While obviously a PR move, it’s a nice gesture nonetheless, and highlights the one thing we love most about Vonage: that you can take one of these ATA boxes (which are made by Cisco) with you when you travel, and as long as you have broadband, use it to make and receive calls from anywhere in the world as if you were in the US. One friend of ours brought his ATA with him to Tokyo when he moved there from New York, and was able to bring his 212 number with him. He can make unlimited calls to anyone in the US just as if he were still here in New York, and it’s a local call for me to ring him up in Tokyo.
