Jun
19
Vonage: Spending As Fast As It Can
Enticing customers to switch from their tried-and-true phone service to a newfangled brand costs loads of money, and Jeffrey A. Citron is on one heck of a spending spree. Citron, the 34-year-old chief executive of telecom startup Vonage Holdings Corp., has been burning millions in venture funding to market Vonage’s Net-based phone service. His message is simple: Users with broadband connections can save on their bills by hitching their phone to the Net — through a Vonage hookup. It’s called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, and customers like the economics. Vonage subscriptions have jumped 63% this year, to 700,000. Some 15,000 more jump on board every week.
