Posted on 06/16/2006 8:33:55 AM PDT by Pop Fly
Despite Vonage's ignominious IPO and fresh questions about its viability as a stand-alone provider of basic phone services, some smart executives are betting the market – and possibly Wall Street – will embrace another independent provider of phone calls via the Internet.
Privately held SunRocket, a two-year-old provider of Voice-over-Internet Protocol (or VOIP) calls, has raised more than $46 million from blue-chip venture investors such as Mayfield Fund and Doll Capital Management, and the company is planning to raise another round of money later this year.
What was Vonage founder Jeffrey A. Citron thinking? It would have been an ideal candidate to merge with a cable company or ISP. But the Internet phone provider is going it alone. Here's why (and why it's not such a good idea). (more)
Like Vonage, SunRocket delivers its calls over a broadband pipe provided by the phone company or the cable operator, which means both upstarts rely heavily on a rival's service.
Plus, both companies are competing against deep-pocketed cable and phone companies that have begun offering a full suite of communications services: phone, high-speed Internet, wireless and television – often at super cheap promotional prices – and portal companies such as Google and Yahoo that offer free PC-to-PC calls over the 'Net.
At least Vonage had the benefit of getting there first. SunRocket, founded in early 2004, has about 120,000 customers, compared to Vonage's 1.6 million.
Lisa Hook, SunRocket's new CEO, is undaunted. Hook, who used to head up AOL's broadband business, thinks the market is big enough for at least two independent players. She's positioning SunRocket as VOIP for the rest of us – the easy-to-use, mass-market alternative to Vonage with its base of early adopters and technically savvy users.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Bought a new phones system from ATT.
It uses a PRI, which is a T1 by another name. In sum, all phones use the Internet now.
Apparently the world didn't need the FIRST one........
Careful... Bellsouth is in the process of T&E for swinging out its own VOIP.... it owns the DSL which is the requirement of Vonage, et.al, If Bellsout markets it smart you will pay for your DSL and get your VOIP for free... effectively shutting out all competitors.
Yeah, just what we need, more ads with that annoying "Woo hoo woo hoo hoo..." song.
The only major problem we've had was that it took FIVE MONTHS to get our old number ported to SunRocket, during which time I was paying two phone bills, which destroyed any projected savings. SunRocket never told me there was a problem, which there was, and I had to handle a lot of the leg-work to get it resolved.
I only have a few minor complaints about the service. Occasionally there is an echo (usually there is none at all). At times the service has done weird things, like being able to dial out while all incoming calls go to voice mail. But these are no worse than the outages you expect with any phone service.
All things considered, it's the best VOIP service I've used, with typically better sound quality than traditional phone service, for much, much less.
Yeah my friends with SunRocket say similar things. They seem to think it's the best VoIP service out there, and it's definitely one of the cheapest. The porting of the number may have had to do with slow response from your old phone company.
What happened was that my old phone company (RCN, actually a cable company) rejected the request, because SunRocket had left out the information about my old phone account (all which I had supplied to SunRocket, and which I had specifically requested be included in the request to RCN, because I had been forewarned about what sticklers they are). Having received this rejection, SunRocket left it go at that and didn't tell me. When I'd call and ask, they'd just say I had to wait, as these things take time.
Eventually I called RCN, found out the problem, and told SunRocket about it. They apologized, sent RCN the same incomplete information, got rejected again, and sat on their hands again, all the while telling me to be patient.
There were other issues besides, but you get my drift. I don't want to be too hard on them, because A) the service really is good overall, B) they're reportedly working to improve customer support, and C) I work for a start-up and well appreciate how tough it is to keep early-adopter customers happy with a really small and recently-hired staff.
A PRI is a ISDN flavored T1... in it self it has inherently nothing to do with the Internet It just a switched circuits to the phone company network...
Voip is Voice in IP packet routed over a TCP/IP network, like the Internet
A good point. The rise of a strong VoIP competitor like SunRocket probably doesn't mean that the world needs another Vonage, but that people are seeking out a service cheaper and better than Vonage.
Like AOL's AIM TotalTalk or some other instant messenger client?
yeah that's the biggest complaint I hear about Vonage, is the contract includes a cancelation fee. So even if you hate it you still pay for it. SunRocket has no cancelation fee and a 30 day money back trial.
Actually there is a bigger competitor to Vonage called Packet8. They were the first to go public out of the VOIP Providers and trade above buck now days. So there are a few big ones out there, but doing VOIP only is a bad business model. Most ISPs, even small ones, are offering VOIP as a Value Added Service.
How much are you paying for the PRI? That is the old way of doing multi business phones lines. There are cheaper ways of doing that now.
For the exorbitant price paid for simple phone (land line or cell) they should KMA.
After spending 12 months, challenging every month's phone bill for an error that Cingular admits they made I tried to switch service but they want to hold me to a 2 year period because THEY had to activate another plan again due to their screw up. I have had this service for 6 years so I should be able to leave when I want without penalty.
Sorry for the rant but IMO that is exactly what dealing with any phone company is like on a daily basis.
"But these are no worse than the outages you expect with any phone service."
Really? You must have pretty poor phone service. My land line into my house has never failed to return a dialtone when I pick up the receiver, even during the great blackout of 2003 (gotta have an old-style phone that doesn't need external power, though). My high-speed cable internet service, OTOH, goes down all the time, and an internet-based phone service can't be any more reliable than your internet provider.
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