IP Democracy: Vonage Users Cite Problems with Comcast ISP

Russell Shaw, who sometimes “takes the temperature” of the Vonage user community by reading posts at the Vonage Forum, says he’s “been noticing a growing number of posts… complaining about the quality of Vonage calls over Comcast broadband connections.”

It’s interesting that there are relatively few similar complaints about the quality of these Vonage calls over other broadband provider networks. Occasionally you’ll read about Verizon or AT&T complaints, but rarely.

But something has happened. Two weeks ago, a Vonage Forum Member named rdstoll began a Vonage Forum thread called Comcast vs. Vonage. The last time I checked, this thread had 116 posts and nearly 7,000 page views. That’s an exceptionally high number.

Russell points out that “many of these complaints are from Vonage users and Forum Members who have been around for awhile, and are more used to giving problem-solving advice in the Forum then venting about it.” The Comcast vs. Vonage thread was started at the end of December.

Visiting the site today, I found 15 pages of posts on the “Comcast vs. Vonage” thread, some of which included diagnostic test results, e-mail exchanges with Comcast tech support, and talk of complaints to state PUCs and Attorneys General. Joscelin from Voip-news.com also posted, inviting users to send her test results for use in a news story.

Russell cites one post that concludes with “a little intentional ‘oopsie’ goes a long way toward discrediting VoIP…”

The same can be said for a little “unintentional oopsie,” which highlights the vulnerability of Vonage and other independent VoIP providers that rely on companies that manage their networks with other priorities in mind, even if intentionally messing with their competitors is not one of them. This, in turn, highlights the potentially murky gray areas where network neutrality rules bump up against operators’ rights and needs to manage their network.

The pushback from the Vonage Forum also suggests that this type of “oopsie,” whether intentional or unintentional, could also have negative repercussions for Comcast, especially in an environment where net neutrality is a hot-button issue and web-word-of-mouth is both rapid and unpredictable.

In addition to Russell’s post, this development got Slashdotted today. It’ll be interesting to see if it has legs, both on the web and in Washington, or fades from site as Comcast fixes the problems. My guess is that these problems are not intentionally aimed at Vonage, but I also wonder if they’re an indicator of the kind of sporadic or even chronic hurdles Vonage and other “indies” will face as Comcast and other pipe-owners manage their networks with their internal priorities in mind…you might call them “unintentional but competitively significant oopsies.”

Posted by Mitch Shapiro on March 2, 2006 3:58 PM to IP Democracy