Vonage cracks 50,000-line milestone

Voice-over-IP service provider Vonage today said it has provisioned 50,000 lines since launching its service in April 2002 and is adding new customers at a rate of 2000 lines per week.

“This demonstrates that we’re a real company,” said John Rego, chief financial officer. “Vonage has clearly become a leader in the voice-over-IP space.”

Vonage has seen its most significant gains in the past two quarters after launching marketing campaigns late last year. Starting out the year with 7500 lines in service, Vonage more than sextupled those subscribers in seven months. Rego said Vonage anticipates 100,000 total lines in service by the end of the year. Vonage launched business services at the beginning of the summer, marketing to small business and home offices using from 5 to 10 phone lines. So far, the results have been encouraging. Of Vonage’s 50,000 lines, 16% are provisioned to business customers, and Rego expects penetration to grow to 20% by the end of the year.

“With 50,000 customers we’re not exactly a huge threat to Verizon yet,” Rego said. “But we’re growing exponentially. It bodes very well for our future as a company and the future of voice-over-IP.”

Vonage runs IP telephony technology through customers’ broadband connections, offering local and long-distance calling plans ranging from $25 to $50 a month.