Vonage Receives Seven New Patents in the First Quarter of 2017

HOLMDEL, N.J., May 15, 2017 --  Vonage (NYSE: VG), a leading provider of cloud communications for business, has received seven new patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. At the end of the first quarter of 2017, Vonage had more than 150 U.S. patents, and an additional 160 U.S. patent applications pending, along with many foreign patents and pending applications in jurisdictions worldwide. Among the patents issued is one that enables the creation of user-defined SMS groups. In this case, group account settings may be configured to provide features such as specifying which group members are copied on outgoing messages, or setting the group identifier which is displayed to recipients on outgoing messages (Pat. No. 9,591,144). This feature may be especially useful for businesses that wish to provide a group identity to their customers, such as in the case of a help desk or customer support function. "By providing our customers with the ability to enhance the customer journey, whether through personal or group messages via SMS to a client or client group, or the ability to easily identify those recipients, Vonage is focused on creating pathways to engage with customers in new and more meaningful ways," said Alan Masarek, CEO of Vonage. "With these capabilities, Vonage is offering businesses the technology to provide their own customers with a superior experience - from service, delivery, support and beyond - and changing the way they connect for better business outcomes." Vonage's new patents also include:

• Two covering advanced call processing features, including the ability to automatically identify and notify a user that a call is no longer on hold (Pat. No. 9,560,197); and a feature for users roaming internationally, whereby incoming cellular calls can be rerouted for delivery over the Internet for a potentially significant cost savings (Pat. No. 9,603,115).
• Two for improvements to Quality of Service (QoS), the first of which includes techniques for allowing a service provider to make better network route selection decisions based on both quality and cost (Pat. No. 9,560,180). The second patent covers a conference call architecture that provides improvements to both scalability and system redundancy (Pat. No. 9,538,134).
• Two for improvements to security of communications, including methods for masking VoIP traffic by transmitting voice data over separate streams (Pat. No. 9,560,085); and techniques for enhanced account verification prior to authorizing a user to make chargeable calls on an account (Pat. No. 9,565,220).

For more information, visit www.vonage.com.