Who will benefit: Managers, scientists, policymakers involved in telephonic cessation. Problem/Objective: Quit rates for phone counseling are better than controls, but have not improved much. It is challenging and expensive to recruit smokers to evidence-based interventions. Can phone program quit rates be improved? Methods: We interviewed 15 national cessation experts, met with counselors, reviewed literature, and evaluated past experience. We developed an Intensive Program (IP) markedly increasing the frequency of call-backs around the quit date with deeper protocol content, providing more medication support including for dual therapy, with follow-up e-mails. We conducted 2 studies examining intensive counseling. Study 1: We randomized 606 people to receive usual care (UC) 5-call treatment or the intensive (IP) program. Study 2: We randomized half of IP to receive 3 booster calls. Results: At one month, we were able to contact 81% of UC and 76% of IP participants. Of those contacted, 56% UC and 72% IP were quit for 7 or more days (P<0.05). IP participants used twice as much dual therapy (22%) and successfully completed 6.4 calls vs 11% and 3 calls for UC. At six months, we contacted 58.5% UC and 56% IP, with 90-day abstinence rates of 36% and 48% (P<0.02). Those receiving additional booster calls did not do better. Conclusions: More intense contact around quit dates increased quit rates in phone-based cessation. Adding calls later did not improve results. Further evaluation in high-risk populations such as chronically ill, pregnant women, and heavily addicted smokers is warranted.