Free Republic

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...

OYCE DORRIS knows the big-time, high-stakes telecommunications industry. She helped brainstorm the 800/COLLECT, "The Neighborhood" and 10-10-220 marketing concepts at MCI. But she's no out-of-touch, limo-riding, latte-sipping, Madison Avenue executive. She knows small-town life, too. The Vienna resident has family in Fredericksburg, visits the area, and understands the mix of commuters and country people here. And she's convinced SunRocket, the fledgling broadband telephone company she co-founded with Paul Erickson that recently launched in the Fredericksburg-area market, will fly high, even with suburban moms and rural grandmas who may be distrustful of new technology. The service, Voice over Internet Protocol, uses...

Thanks to its relentless marketing and low prices, Vonage has quickly become synonymous with phone service over the Internet. But when Brandon Sehlke and his wife, Jennifer, moved into a new home in San Antonio two weeks ago, they chose a new Internet phone service from Time Warner Cable, not Vonage or AT&T, his old provider. Skip to next paragraph The deal Time Warner offered was just too good: phone service with a television package and a broadband connection for a promotional price of $89.95 a month. "Getting all three services was better than anything else we could find," said...

It's likely your home phone is such familiar technology that you barely think about it. Maybe it's time you did. Lots of people are giving up the traditional household "land line" in favor of Internet phone service, also known as Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP. Many more would like to try VOIP - if they could do so cheaply and without sacrificing their current phone line - at least until they see how this new alternative works out. And that's where the Internet telephone provider SunRocket comes in. SunRocket (www.sunrocket.com) is aggressively positioning itself as a low-cost VOIP provider...