Room temperature quasi-continuous operation is achieved near 1556 nm with threshold current as low as 2.2 mA from a 5.6-${mu}{ extrm}{m}$ oxide-aperture vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser. Wafer fusion techniques are employed to combine the GaAs/AlGaAs mirror and the InP-based InGaAs/InGaAsP active layer. In this structure, an $Al_x/O_y$/GaAs distributed bragg reflector and intra-cavity contacts are used to reduce free carrier absorption.