Internet telephone firm Vonage plans to launch phone products based on Wi-Fi wireless technology in 2007, the firm's chairman Jeffrey Citron, quoted by a Reuters report, said.
'We expect next year, 2007, to release a next generation Wi-Fi product to continue to pursue making those services more available here,' Citron, also Vonage's chief strategist, told the Reuters Media Summit in New York.
He declined to elaborate on specific products, but said Vonage's technology could be embedded in handheld devices like mobile phones and laptop computers, the report said.
'There's so much possibility out there with the construction of mobile Wi-Fi networks going up all over the place, much of that construction is expected to be complete during the 2007, 2008 timeframes,' he said.
'For us it will be another generation of handsets for sure, and those handsets will of course "&brkbar; take advantage of the new trends in this space.'
Citron reiterated that Vonage was aiming to make an adjusted operating profit in the first quarter of 2008, the Reuters report said.
But the company's level of spending on marketing, an area of concern for some investors, would be unchanged or higher next year in absolute terms, he said.
Vonage shares have fallen 60% since going public in May at $17 a share amid concerns about increasing competition from cable companies and Internet companies, the Reuters report said.