Vonage Announces Deals at CES

Voice-over-Internet-protocol provider Vonage Holdings Corp. has been keeping busy at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Vonage is teaming up with UTStarcom Inc. to introduce a portable Wi-Fi handset, the “F-1000,” which will be configured with Vonage's VoIP service.

Vonage said the F-1000 will be available nationwide sometime this spring or summer.

The company is also partnering with cellular-phone vendor VTech Holdings Corp. to develop a broadband cordless-phone system configured with Vonage's service.

The new product -- configured with Texas Instruments Inc.’s “TNETV1060” VoIP chip set -- will be available at more than 8,000 retail locations nationwide sometime this spring or summer. It plugs directly into a customer's broadband connection or router, eliminating the need for a stand-alone adapter and telephone.

Finally, Vonage and TI are extending their relationship to include TI VoIP software and semiconductors in new Vonage-compatible communications products available from partners VTech and Viseon.

The agreement covers products such as the VTech broadband cordless-phone system mentioned above, as well as Viseon's “Digital Home Telephone for VoIP,” which incorporates technology from TI's VoIP and digital-media groups, including TI's “TNETV1050” IP-phone processor and “TMS320DM64x” digital-media processor.