Time Warner mobilizes home phone service via Phone 2 Go app
Time Warner is helping customers save minutes on their cellular plans with a new application that lets them take their home phone service wherever they go.
The new app, Phone 2 Go, allows customers to text and make voice or video calls on smartphones and tablets via Wi-Fi or cellular data connection. This tool, allowing smartphone users to salvage the minutes on their cellular plan, takes at-home resources abroad and allows Time Warner customers to be more productive and miss less calls.
?Time Warner Cable introduced its Phone 2 Go app as a way to extend and enhance the features of our Home Phone service and bring our customers even more value,? Jeff Lindsay, general manager of Time Warner Cable Home Phone Service, Washington. ?Our customers were asking for features such as video calling and texting from their home Phone number.
?They also wanted the ability to pick up calls to their home numbers when they were out of the home,? he said. ?We also recognized that there?s frustration with the high cost of international calls from mobile providers.
?Given that we have some of the most competitive international rates of any carrier, we designed Phone 2 Go to let our Home Phone customers get access to our very competitive rate plans when they are traveling anywhere in the world. As long as they can find a low cost Wi-Fi connection, they can take full advantage of our Global Penny plan and our unlimited free calling to Mexico, from anywhere in the world.?
Home to mobile
After downloading the free Phone 2 Go app on the Apple App Store or Google Play, customers can set up the service on their smartphone or tablet.
Calls can be forwarded from their home phone service anywhere they are, including overseas. Users can choose to make calls or send texts from their mobile devices using the home service at no additional cost while using Wi-Fi.
When sending calls or texts, users can choose up to five devices registered to the home phone line, making it easier for users to stay in touch with their family and friends.
The app also allows the maintenance of voicemail. Users can view and pick up messages made to their home phone lines.
Phone 2 Go is compatible with devices using iOS 6.0 and higher and Android 4.1 and higher.
Customers with TWC Standard Internet service or above can take advantage of nearly 50,000 free TWC Wi-Fi hotspots and more than 250,000 free Cable Wi-Fi hotspots around the country to use Phone 2 Go.
?Phone 2 Go offers tremendous convenience and savings by removing the physical limitations of where a customer can use their TWC Home Phone service and plan,? Mr. Lindsay said.
Building awareness
TWC has been spending time this year creating and maintaining a mobile presence.
For example, the cable company provided 235 access points of free Wi-Fi Internet service for attendees at the United States Open Tennis Championships in New York, building awareness of the company and serving as its largest public venue installation to date.
In addition to Wi-Fi, Time Warner invited attendees into its studios for additional engagements, expanding the marketing opportunity to build the brand?s overall presence. Providing WiFi access at an event of such a large scale helped attendees get more enjoyment from the experience and garnered appreciation for the company (see story).
In 2011, Time Warner Cable introduced an application for Android tablets to address the growing number of customers who owned one of these devices.
The free TWC TV app for Android tablets gave customers the ability to program their DVR, add favorite channels and use their Android tablet as a remote control. However, the Android app did not offer live television at the time, a feature that was found on the iPad app (see story).
It appears that Time Warner will continue to experiment with mobile to better the customer experience in as many ways as possible.
?Time Warner Cable is focused on connecting our customers to the things that matter to them most,? Mr. Lindsay said. ?We recognize that our customers are increasingly mobile and find huge value in being able to stay connected no matter where they are.
?We also recognize that our customers want the convenience of using their wireless phones but they still like many aspects of our landline Home Phone service, such as a high quality voice connections and very low calling rates, especially for international calls,? he said. ?We designed Phone 2 Go to give our customers the best of both worlds."
Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York