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Vonage to introduce the V-Phone

Marguerite Reardon Former senior reporter
Marguerite Reardon started as a CNET News reporter in 2004, covering cellphone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate and the consolidation of the phone companies.
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Marguerite Reardon

Vonage gave its first glimpse of a new gadget that will allow its voice over IP users to make calls from any broadband connected computer.

The USB doohickey called V-Phone carries Vonage software that once plugged into a computer turns it into a phone. Jeffrey Citron, chairman of the company, unveiled the new product at the Convergence 2.0 conference in New York City on Monday. The company will officially launch the new product on Wednesday at a press event in New York.

Citron, who reportedly didn't take any questions after his presentation on Monday, will be speaking again on Wednesday.

Vonage is facing a slew of shareholder lawsuits in the wake of its disastrous initial public offering. The company's stock has lost nearly half its value since it started trading on the New York Stock Exchange a month ago. The company's stock debuted at $17 per share and today was trading at $8.83 a share.

Verizon Communications has also filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the company, claiming that it has infringed on patents that allow callers to complete a call from an Internet phone to a phone on the regular public switched telephone network.