October 15, 2008

Skype Continues its Slow and Steady Uptick

Online auction giant eBay issued its Q3 08 earnings results (PDF) today showing a 12% year-over-year rise in revenue to $2.12 billion and a net profit of $492 million, compared to a loss of $936 million during Q3 07, when... More...


July 16, 2008

Skype Annualized Revenues Now Top $500 Million

Online auction giant eBay issued its Q2 earnings (PDF) results this afternoon, helping to lift an already improving mood on Wall Street by posting a 20% jump in net profits to $568 million with revenue also growing by 20% to... More...


July 9, 2008

Comcast and Vonage Align on Network Management

In a surprising announcement, the nation's top cable operator Comcast and the number one independent VoIP provider Vonage today said they will work together to ensure that Comcast's network management techniques don't mar the functioning of Vonage's competitive voice offering.... More...


June 25, 2008

Cable CEOs & CTOs: Our Big Challenge is Change

(Philadelphia, PA) Cable CEOs and CTOs alike agree that the pace of technological progress is the biggest challenge facing the cable industry now and for the foreseeable future. Speaking at two consecutive general sessions at the Society of Cable Engineer's... More...


June 20, 2008

Lobbyists Battle on Blogs Over Impending FCC Ruling

A fun uber-lobbyist blog fight has broken out today regarding a rumored FCC ruling that would smack down Verizon over its practice of pitching special deals to landline customers slated to switch voice service to cable companies. Back story: Last... More...


May 17, 2008

U.S. Cable Telephony Growth Strong in Q1 08

As the cable industry heads into its big annual trade show this weekend in New Orleans, it has one major unqualified success to tout. U.S. cable operators added a collective 1.3 million net new voice customers during Q1 08, a... More...


April 16, 2008

Skype Keeps Growing at Steady Clip Despite Turmoil

eBay issued its Q1 08 earnings results today showing healthy advances in revenue and net income but weak growth in active eBay users and a 1% drop in gross merchandising volume. eBay's communications arm, which almost solely consists of VoIP... More...


February 12, 2008

Verizon's War with Cable over VoIP Customers

Top telco Verizon has seemingly had enough with cable operators stealing away its local voice customers. Fresh from its VoIP patent lawsuit victory over independent VoIP provider Vonage, Verizon is now flexing its legal muscles to take on the even... More...


January 23, 2008

Whitman Leaves Just as Skype Starts to Do Alright

That rarest of all species, a potent female CEO of a major company, and one who wielded power in the all-male bastion of Silicon Valley no less, is stepping down from her top dog role and it's kind of a... More...


January 8, 2008

Comcast is Now Fourth Biggest Home Phone Provider

Comcast is really pulling out all the stops at CES this year. On top of its big announcement regarding its Project Infinity, the top cable operator is also touting the fact that it's now the fourth biggest residential phone service... More...


October 25, 2007

Vonage Death Vigil: Verizon Patent Suit Settled

Besieged independent VoIP provider Vonage has settled its patent lawsuit with Verizon, agreeing to pay a total of $120 million to end the protracted legal battle and to eliminate the uncertainty hanging over its head. Vonage will pay out an... More...


October 18, 2007

Can eBay Make Skype a Winner in the VoIP World?

Back in 2002, VoIP promised to shake up the telecom world by introducing a low-cost rival to incumbent voice carriers. The upstarts had a simple plan: deliver cheap competitive voice services to businesses and consumers over those telcos' (and cable... More...


October 8, 2007

Vonage Death Vigil: Sprint-Nextel Suit Settled

Finally, a ray of good news for embattled but pugnacious VoIP provider Vonage: the Holmdel, NJ-based voice provider announced this morning it has settled its patent dispute with Sprint by entering into a licensing deal under which it will get... More...


October 1, 2007

Yup, Zennstrom is Out at Skype

Niklas Zennstrom, one of the co-founders of Skype, is officially out of the company as CEO, an all-but-certain outcome given the poor performance of Skype within its eBay corporate home and the public clucks of disapproval by eBay CEO Meg... More...


September 26, 2007

Vonage Death Vigil: Two Blows in Two Days

Vonage is in so much trouble that I'm almost rooting for the scrappy VoIP pioneer to turn things around in a big way. The latest set of woes afflicting Vonage are, of course, legal in nature. Yesterday Vonage lost yet... More...


September 24, 2007

Just Say No to Pudding Media

In what Henry Blodget deems "one of the worst business ideas we've heard in years," a company called Pudding Media is planning to offer free phone calls over VoIP. The hitch? It gets to listen to your conversations in order... More...


August 9, 2007

Comcast is the Nation's Number One VoIP Provider

Now that Vonage has weighed in with its Q2 07 subscriber statistics, there can be no doubt: Comcast, the nation’s number one cable operator, is now the nation’s number one VoIP provider. Although Comcast edged out pioneering Vonage at the... More...


Vonage Death Watch: Q2 07 Net Adds Plummet

Troubled VoIP pioneer Vonage issued its Q2 07 earnings report this morning showing decent revenue growth and a remarkable reduction in net losses. But, the trouble surrounding Vonage’s patent lawsuit defeat combined with strong triple-play service bundles resulted in a... More...


July 23, 2007

Reprehensible Tent-Folding at SunRocket, Amp'd

Two items today attest to what I hope is not a trend in today’s tech-based service world. The first is Matt Richtel’s article in the New York Times about the human cost of SunRocket’s sudden shut-down. When I initially read... More...


July 19, 2007

Oh Boy, Just What We Need. Another VoIP Provider.

The big news for today is the launch of an ambitious VoIP provider called Ooma. Walt Mossberg reviews the $27 million-backed start-up’s service here and is generally positive. Mike Arrington has a relatively star-struck overview of the service here. Ashton... More...


July 18, 2007

Did eBay's Whitman Dig at Skype's Zennstrom, Friis?

I’m listening to eBay’s investor call regarding its Q2 07 earnings release and Meg Whitman, CEO of the online auction giant, just recapped the performance of all the company’s businesses. When it came to Skype, however, Whitman said, and I... More...


July 17, 2007

SunRocket Bites the Dust

Everyone has been predicting this for a very long time, but now the reality has set in: independent VoIP providers are going extinct. The first up is the once-hot Vienna, VA-based SunRocket, which has gone gentle into that good night,... More...


June 25, 2007

Vonage Death Vigil: Zero Hour at the Appeals Court

Oral arguments were heard today at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Verizon v. Vonage. Specifically, the appeals panel heard arguments about why an injunction against Vonage should or should not be imposed — if the... More...


May 10, 2007

Vonage Death Vigil: Loss Narrows But Growth Stalled

Troubled VoIP pioneer Vonage issued its Q1 07 earnings report today and the news wasn’t, surprisingly, totally bad. As it has promised to do in the past, Vonage continued to narrow its losses, even in the face of royalty costs... More...


May 7, 2007

Cable Telephony Hits 10% Penetration Milestone

Now that all the Q1 07 earnings reports have been issued, it’s time once again to take a look at the U.S. cable industry’s success rate in capturing telephony subscribers with their still-relatively new digital voice services. According to our... More...


May 4, 2007

Vonage Death Vigil: Courts Denies Retrial Request

Vonage continues to grapple with the likely lethal verdict that found, among other things, the VoIP pioneer has infringed upon key patents held by Verizon. The court in that case ruled that Vonage must stop signing up new customers as... More...


April 24, 2007

Vonage Death Vigil: Vonage Wins Permanent Stay

At last some good news for Vonage: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington D.C. today gave Vonage a permanent stay of an earlier court injunction that would have barred it from signing up new customers.... More...


April 23, 2007

Pulver Questions Verizon's Patent Validity

Vonage is going down the tubes in large part because Verizon has crippled the company through a deadly patent litigation lawsuit that centers on key VoIP patents. Fears abound that, bolstered by its big victory, Verizon will lob infringement lawsuits... More...


April 18, 2007

Skype's Doing Alright

Unlike fellow VoIP pioneer Vonage, eBay-owned Skype appears to be doing alright. eBay issued its Q1 07 earnings report this afternoon showing very strong growth in Skype’s registered user base and revenues, both of which more than doubled year-over-year. Skype’s... More...


Vonage Death Vigil: Sprint Deal Unlikely

Vonage has been a trainwreck for almost a year, starting around the time it went public. The VoIP provider’s botched IPO sparked massive lawsuits and customer defections. Subscriber growth has otherwise precipitously dropped and it looks like Vonage won’t survive... More...


April 6, 2007

It's Almost All Over for Vonage

(Back after a mini-spring break) It’s almost the end of the world as Vonage knew it — today U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton issued an injunction against the VoIP pioneer that bars the company from gaining any new subscribers,... More...


March 12, 2007

U.S. Cable Nears Nine Million Telephony Mark

U. S. cable operators are gaining telephony customers at a scorching rate. According to my tally (see table at end) the top cable companies counted 8.77 million voice customers at the end of 2006, which represents a year-over-year growth rate... More...


March 8, 2007

Is MagicJack a Skype Killer?

Marketwatch’s Herb Greenberg has this interesting item today about a new device called the MagicJack, slated for unveiling at TED. Colorful low-cost calling pioneer Dan Borislow invented the device, which purports to support free phone calling on any phone by... More...


February 15, 2007

Vonage is a Seriously Downbound Train

Independent VoIP provider Vonage released its Q4 06 earnings results today and although the financial results looked OK, the subscriber data portend a bad end for Vonage. Vonage’s earnings call was such an uncomfortable thing to hear. While the assembled... More...


February 6, 2007

Check Out These Skype Hacks

I have a friend (Larry Honig) who keeps urging me to check out the many-faceted features of Skype. You’ll be able to record calls for podcasting purposes, conduct free conference calls, route calls to your mobile and so much more,... More...


January 11, 2007

Vonage to Give Free Installs in Exchange for Contracts

VoIP pioneer Vonage is battling massive competition and steep (although narrowing) losses at the same time that subscriber growth is starting to slow. One strategy Vonage will pursue this year to maintain customer gains is to offer free professional installation... More...


December 18, 2006

The iPhone is Here and the Joke's On Us

In the “that’s so funny I forgot to laugh” category, Gizmodo’s Brian Lam has played a practical joke on the blogosphere. Last week, Lam promised that the iPhone would be announced this week, sparking all kinds of chattering among the... More...


December 14, 2006

Cellular to Wi-Fi Mobile Service Not Ready Yet

Pity poor T-Mobile’s flacks. The company recently launched the commercial availability of its HotSpot@Home mobile voice service, which leverages both traditional cellular and new Wi-Fi technologies. Although the service, available only in Seattle, is now in true commercial service mode,... More...


December 13, 2006

Skype Unveils $30/Year North American Calling Plan

The big news for today, and I’m not sure why this is so important, is that Skype has unveiled a $29.95/year calling plan that allows for unlimited calling to regular landline and mobile phones anywhere in the U.S. and Canada.... More...


December 6, 2006

Yes, Virginia, There Really is an iPhone (Redux)

It seems that once a year, just about this time of year, credible reports surface that Apple is getting ready to release its voice-enabled iPod, dubbed the iPhone. The reports have been fast and furious over the past few days... More...


November 27, 2006

Wi-Fi Piggybacking: Not Just for Laptops Anymore

The New York Times’ Matt Richtel has this ahead-of-the-curve article about a new Internet phenomenon and of course San Francisco leads the way. The phenomenon: piggybacking on unencrypted Wi-Fi connections to make VoIP phone calls with Wi-Fi-enabled phones. New phones... More...


November 13, 2006

Cable Telephony Nears Eight Million Subscribers

As anybody who follows the communications business knows, cable and phone companies are in a race to capture the triple-play customer, the home that buys its voice, video and high-speed data services all from one company in a bundle. Based... More...


November 6, 2006

Microsoft Guns for VoIP in Bigger Way

Andy flagged it first and now the Wall Street Journal has made it into big news — Microsoft plans to enter the VoIP market in a big way next year, CEO Steve Ballmer said during a speech today in Japan.... More...


November 2, 2006

VoIP Slow-Down at Time Warner Cable?

When Time Warner issued its Q3 06 earnings report yesterday, the operational data on Time Warner Cable were difficult to decipher. The nation’s number two cable operator just acquired a bunch of cable systems from Adelphia and has made other... More...


October 31, 2006

Vonage Growth Slows As Net Loss Narrows

Independent VoIP provider Vonage issued its Q3 06 earnings report today showing slowing growth and higher churn, along with rising revenue and narrowing losses. Revenues soared by 118% year-over-year and rose 12% sequentially, while net loss dropped 6% year-over-year and... More...


October 26, 2006

Decent VoIP Phones are Finally Here

The New York Times’ Roy Furchgott has this good recap and review of the VoIP phones that have hit the market over the past year. One of the biggest drawbacks to widepsread acceptance of stand-alone VoIP services such as Skype... More...


October 7, 2006

T-Mobile to Get Aggressive on VoWi-Fi

Mobile carrier T-Mobile is psyched to launch new services over the AWS spectrum it acquired as the top bidder in the recent FCC auctions, so psyched that the Deutsche Telekom-backed company started upgrading its NYC network to next-generation technology even... More...


September 29, 2006

Skype's Mobile Phone Delays

Business Week’s Olga Kharif has this piece on an issue that is becoming a sore point for Skype: it’s inability to work on mobile phones and delays the VoIP provider is experiencing in getting its mobile application to work. CEO... More...


September 26, 2006

Jajah's Bold Mobile Phone Move

Business Week Online’s Olga Kharif has this piece about a new move by VoIP provider Jajah that will be announced today. Jajah is unveiling Jajah Mobile that will allow callers who have any one of up to 80 mobile phone... More...


September 13, 2006

Comcast to Launch Video Telephony in 2007

(Boston, MA) A big, fat, juicy scoop landed at my feet here at VON — the nation’s top cable company, Comcast, plans to launch a video telephony service in 2007, which some people close to the company are calling a... More...


September 4, 2006

Vonage Hits the Two Million Mark

The New York Times Matt Richtel has this piece today on Vonage, which includes a rare interview with high-profile co-founder Jeff Citron (whom Richtel misidentifies as CEO of the company — Citron is actually Chairman and Chief Strategist. Michael Snyder... More...


August 29, 2006

eBay's Pact With Google Extends Skype

The New York Times’ Saul Hansell has this follow-up piece today about eBay’s deal with Google. Although the deal was big news yesterday because it gives Google the right to sell ads on eBay’s sites outside the U.S. (Yahoo already... More...


August 28, 2006

VoIP Prices: Not Dropping As Fast As You Think

For a while there, it seemed like VoIP prices would keep dropping to the point that Rupert Murdoch’s prediction, namely that all VoIP would be free, was, indeed, coming true. But, based on my examination of monthly subscription VoIP services,... More...


August 1, 2006

Vonage: We'll Be Profitable by Q1 08

Controversial and innovative VoIP provider Vonage issued its first set of quarterly earnings results as a public company this morning, showing continued strong growth in subscribers and a sequential slow-down in its heavy quarterly losses. Vonage predicts it will continue... More...


July 20, 2006

Some Answers on Skype's Growth

eBay issued its Q2 06 earnings report yesterday and sparked a mini-controversy in the blogosphere regarding the lack of visibility into the online merchant’s prized “communications” arm, Skype. Om Malik, frustrated with the “softball” questions posed by analysts during the... More...


July 12, 2006

J.D. Power & Associates: Cable VoIP is the Best

Much to the utmost glee of cable operators, J.D. Power and Associates has just released an astonishing survey of customer satisfaction with telephone service providers — and cable’s VoIP service comes out shining. Cable tops the list of phone service... More...


July 10, 2006

SunRocket Pushes Value of VoIP Higher

Internet phone rising star SunRocket is pushing down the price of VoIP even further while upping the value of the service. The Vienna, VA-based company announced this morning a new global calling plan, called the SunRocket Sunspots Edition, that covers... More...


July 3, 2006

VoIP Soon to Be Free...or Almost Free?

Another New York Times’ noteworthy piece today — Matt Richtel and Ken Belson have this article on how the low price of VoIP service is putting downward pricing pressure on all telephony providers. New competitors, including the major cable companies... More...


July 2, 2006

Pulver Howls About VoIP USF Order

Jeff Pulver, the unofficial godfather of the VoIP business, has been traveling the globe with pulver.com’s regulatory counsel Jonathan Askin and is just now turning his attention toward the FCC’s USF Order, which requires VoIP providers to contribute to the... More...


Skype's Dual-Mode Phone Could Be a Killer

A huge hindrance to Skype, with its extremely low-cost and free Internet-based voice options, is the fact that customers have been tied to their PCs in order to fully take advantage of Skype. Now, as this review by Daniel Greenberg... More...


June 26, 2006

Vonage's Citron Speaks...But Not Really

Brian Ward at The Deal’s TechEffect blog has ongoing coverage of The Deal’s star-studded Convergence 2.0 conference. One of the more intriguing speakers at the event today was Vonage’s Chairman and Chief Strategist Jeffrey Citron, the first such public appearance... More...


June 21, 2006

Universal Service: FCC Action, House Hearing

It’s not the most exciting telecom policy topic in DC, but universal service funding (USF) is a perennial problem. The FCC is responsible for assessing contributions by various telecom-related providers in order to subsidize the availability of phone service in... More...


June 9, 2006

Appeals Court Upholds FCC VoIP Wiretap Order

In a blow to privacy groups and VoIP providers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today upheld the FCC’s decision to apply wiretapping to VoIP providers. The Court concluded that the FCC made a “reasonable policy choice”... More...


June 8, 2006

VoIP Hacker Highlights Dangers of the IP Era

In a development that was bound to happen sooner or later, federal authorities arrested two men yesterday who had allegedly hacked into a group of companies’ VoIP networks and then resold discount phone service that used those networks. According to... More...


June 5, 2006

VoIP Companies Hit with Lawsuits

As I called it, Vonage has been hit with its first class-action lawsuit (the suit was filed Friday but I didn’t know that when I predicted the lawsuit on Saturday). Filed in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, the... More...


June 3, 2006

Vonage is Mired in a Bog of Bad News

That Vonage’s IPO has been disastrous is nothing new. But, each day brings more bad news for Vonage and I don’t see it ending any time soon. First, despite Vonage’s recent statement that it expects customers who purchased pre-IPO shares... More...


June 2, 2006

Martin Eyes VoIP USF Fees

Nothing makes my eyes glaze over more than the phrase “universal service fund” (unless of course it’s “intercarrier compensation”), but today there is news that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is readying a proposal that would levy USF taxes on VoIP... More...


June 1, 2006

Vonage May Dun Customers After All

In the continuing fallout from the unbelievably bad public markets debut of VoIP provider Vonage, the company is now saying that it might not let off the hook customers who purchased pre-IPO shares but refused to pay for them. On... More...


May 31, 2006

Vonage Stock-Buying Customers Hopping Mad

Lesson-learned for Vonage: don’t try to sell your company’s overpriced stock to customers that you need to retain in order to bolster your stock price. As this piece by the New York Times’ Ken Belson and Matt Richtel attests, some... More...


May 30, 2006

Phone Numbers for People You Don't Trust

Is there pent-up demand for anonymous, disposable phone numbers? That may be the case or it may just be serendipity that over the past week or so two companies have stepped up with plans to give consumers free or low-cost... More...


May 24, 2006

Vonage Conjures Up A Half Billion Dollars

The business and tech press is awash in articles today about how Vonage’s stock is seemingly sinking on the heels of its over-subscribed IPO. It’s big news and everybody is portraying the IPO as a flop. Vonage, which debuted at... More...


May 23, 2006

Altogether Now: Let's Dump on Vonage's IPO

Vonage is set to go public today and the press couldn’t be more…doubtful? pessismistic? downright dismissive? This piece by the New York Times’ Ken Belson and Matt Richtel starts off with a story about a customer who chose Time Warner’s... More...


May 17, 2006

Cablevision Engages in VoIP Price Competition

Most cable companies view their nascent but rapidly growing VoIP-based voice services as cash flow generators. As a consequence, they don’t want to treat voice as a commodity nor do they wish to engage in price competition. But, Long Island-based... More...


May 15, 2006

The Fallout from Skype's Free Phone Calling

VoIP pioneer Skype today made its first bold move to capture U.S. voice market share since its acquisition by eBay. The company announced that all US and Canadian-based Skype customers can now make free SkypeOut calls to traditional landline and... More...


May 10, 2006

Vonage Sends Voice Mail to Customers Hawking IPO

VoIP pioneer Vonage sent customers an email earlier this week offering them shares in the company’s upcoming IPO, an interesting move that has sparked a lot of press — how many companies give their mass market customers an option to... More...


May 8, 2006

Vonage Offers IPO Shares to Customers

In a very interesting move, independent VoIP provider Vonage, which has filed for an initial public offering (IPO), is offering its customers shares in the company’s stock at the IPO price. Vonage sent an email to its customers this morning... More...


May 5, 2006

Judges Laugh at FCC Attorneys over CALEA Rationale

An appeals court panel today heard oral argument in the challenge to the FCC’s imposition of CALEA or wire-tapping obligations on VoIP providers. According to this AP report, a good time was not had by the FCC’s attorneys, with the... More...


May 4, 2006

AOL Offers Free Local Phone Number Service

AOL is about to announce a new service, called AIMPhone, that gives its AIM users a free local phone number using VoIP technology. The free service will work only for incoming calls — users can receive calls at the number... More...


April 28, 2006

Vonage Growth Soars as It Seeks Bigger IPO

Today’s the day to hear about just how fast independent VoIP providers are growing. First, Skype announced this morning it has passed the 100 million registered user mark (and some commentators question just how many of those users are active).... More...


Skype Hits Hundred Million-User Milestone

Ebay-owned P2P-based VoIP provider Skype announced this morning it has hit a big milestone — 100 million registered users. That’s a whole lot of free phone calling going on given that only a small fraction (10 million or so) of... More...


April 26, 2006

AT&T to Offer Yahoo! Messenger with Voice

AT&T and Yahoo! announced this morning that AT&T will offer its high-speed Internet customers and Yahoo! customers within AT&T’s 13-state local phone service region a co-branded version of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, the online giant’s VoIP-enabled IM application. The IM... More...


April 12, 2006

VoIP Market Heats Up

VoIP keeps getting hotter and hotter, surprisingly so because it’s a pretty well-established technology by now. First, Om has two excellent round-ups of two flurries in the VoIP market. One area of activity is around mobile VoIP search, sparked by... More...


April 5, 2006

Chinese Telco Wants to Block VoIP

AP’s Peter Svensson has this article on a move by Shanghai Telecom to block VoIP calls over its network. Mountain View, CA-based tech provider Narus has said that the government-backed phone company will use its technology to block “unauthorized” Internet... More...


March 31, 2006

Tough Times for Independent VoIP Providers

This hasn’t been a good week for independent VoIP providers. It started off with Andy Abramson’s scoop that Skype is coping with a lawsuit that could (but probably won’t) strike at the heart of eBay’s high-profile purchase. Now, it looks... More...


March 27, 2006

Is eBay in for a World of Pain? Probably Not.

For those of you have been out of it today, the biggest news in the blogosphere is that Skype, which eBay bought for a cool $2.6 billion, and its co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, are being sued by Streamcast... More...


March 23, 2006

iPod Phone is On the Way

Courtesy of Good Morning Silicon Valley, this item from SmartHouse that confirms what many already know in their bones to be true: Apple is going to add voice functionality to the iPod. In other words, an iPod phone is on... More...


March 22, 2006

Report: China to Block VoIP Until 2008

This item from Monday’s Financial Times claims that China won’t allow VoIP services to move forward in that country until 2008. Word of China’s continued ban of IP-based voice services surfaced on the Chinese web site of Tom Online, which... More...


Verizon Plans to Launch FiOS VoIP Service

(Las Vegas, NV) Verizon is making headway with its FiOS video and high-speed services, but the telco also plans to throw VoIP into the mix of advanced services offered over its fiber-to-the-premise network. Speaking yesterday on a panel at TelecomNext,... More...


March 20, 2006

Can SunRocket Battle Bundling?

The Washington Post today has this piece on SunRocket and its newly hired CEO Lisa Hook, who once headed AOL’s broadband consumer efforts (and although the article doesn’t mention it, some of AOL’s and Time Warner Telecom’s early voice efforts).... More...


March 17, 2006

Spam, Access Bottlenecks & the Invisible Hand

Esther Dyson makes some good points about emerging email services intended to address the spam problem by charging senders a fee for guaranteed delivery of emails. Though her opinion piece in the New York Times focuses mainly on a company... More...


March 9, 2006

Skype Targets Small Businesses

The LA Times James Granelli has this piece today about Skype’s new effort to capture small business customers, called Skype for Business. As part of the new program, Skype is introducing a lot of bells-and-whistles that would appeal to small... More...


March 8, 2006

AT&T/BellSouth Merger a Sign of Weakness?

USA Today tech columnist Kevin Maney is less-then-wowed by the planned AT&T-BellSouth merger and its implications for AT&T’s future: Worried that a merged AT&T and BellSouth are like some Ma Bell Frankenstein, reassembled and about to terrorize all of communications?... More...


March 7, 2006

Shaw-Vonage Spat: A Sign of the Future?

In the midst of the U.S. debate over net neutrality, the challenge by Vonage to Shaw’s $10 surcharge is, as Cynthia notes, a significant development. Though it turns out that Shaw has been doing this since at least last May... More...


March 2, 2006

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... More...


March 1, 2006

"Our Network Carries Our Services"

The issue of net neutrality isn’t only a factor in the wireline broadband access space. As Forbes points out, it’s also starting to emerge in the wireless 3G space. The creators of Slingbox…have another clever idea: Let consumers watch their... More...


February 17, 2006

More Consumer Empowerment from SIPphone

Shortly after securing a $6 mil. round of funding led by Dawntreader Ventures, SIPphone has announced an intriguing new service. Company founder Michael Robertson describes it as “an innovative service…that combines the flexibility and cost efficiency of VoIP…with the ubiquity... More...


February 8, 2006

Vonage Files for IPO, Names New CEO

After a period of mystery regarding what steps it would take, VoIP start-up Vonage has filed for an IPO. (See filing here. If this link doesn’t work, go here and search under company filings.) In the filing, Vonage also announces... More...


February 2, 2006

2006 is the Year of Comcast VoIP

Comcast issued its Q4 05 earnings this morning showing strong growth in all new services and a reversal in its basic customer loss. Total revenue generating units climbed to 41.1 mil., up from 40.2 mil. in Q3 05 and 38.4... More...


January 23, 2006

Tello Takes a Run at Advanced Business VoIP

Internet pioneer Jeff Pulver is at it again, only this time his new VoIP initiative is backed by big bucks. With money from wireless pioneer Craig McCaw, former Apple CEO John Sculley and veteran telecom banker Michael Price, and some... More...


January 9, 2006

E911 and the Two-Tiered Internet

Jeff Pulver responds to the recent Wall Street Journal piece entitled “Phone Companies Set Off A Battle Over Internet Fees.” Think about it this way. If instead of e-mail these companies delivered express-postal mail, it would be like the consumer... More...


January 6, 2006

Movielink, BellSouth Discuss Two-Tiered Internet Deal

A piece in the Wall Street Journal continues the discussion of a “two-tiered Internet” that would require independent service providers to pay telcos “to receive priority treatment [on] increasingly crowded [broadband access] networks.” The WSJ story says Movielink “has discussed... More...


January 4, 2006

Spending My "20% Time" on a Google Grand Plan

I’m pretty sure that, if I worked at Google, I’d spend my “20% time” working on a Cringely-esque business plan involving large volumes of low-cost Google Cubes and data centers, and maybe even Google-funded local access networks…Or maybe its just... More...


December 28, 2005

CallVantage Praised, Vonage Shredded

Thanks to Andy Abramson, I just read back-to-back two articles about leading VoIP companies, and the contrast between the two struck me as yet another sign that the VoIP market is growing increasingly differentiated as time goes on. It’s not... More...


December 18, 2005

Driving Voice Prices Toward Zero

Last week, SIPphone’s Gizmo Project joined Yahoo in cutting the per-minute rate for VoIP calling to U.S. PSTN lines to just one cent per minute. A post by SIPphone founder Michael Robertson on his web site gives a sense of... More...


December 14, 2005

Vonage: e911 Now Available Everywhere

Independent VoIP provider Vonage dodged its e911 bullet, or at least only got grazed by it. The company announced today that e911 service is available throughout its service territories. Vonage has been in a tight spot since November 28, when... More...


December 13, 2005

Cheap Calls Bustin' Out All Over - Microsoft & MCI Announce VoIP

On the heels of Yahoo’s announcement that it will offer a $.01/minute VoIP service, comes archrival Microsoft’s announcement today that it has joined hands with MCI (soon to be a part of Verizon) to offer PC-to-Phone service. Dubbed MCI Web... More...


December 12, 2005

Army to Spend $4 Billion Upgrading Telecom System

The Washington Post has this scoop today: the U.S. Army will spend around $4 billion to upgrade its telecommunications capability, with a huge chunk of the modernization effort going to VoIP. At $4 billion, the Infrastructure Modernization Program is one... More...


December 10, 2005

Comcast to Roll Out VoIP in Nation's Capital

Comcast scored a mini-PR coup with a relatively fawning front page piece in the Washington Post’s business section today (too bad for Comcast that it’s the Saturday edition of the Post’s business section). The gist: Comcast is coming to town... More...


December 8, 2005

Yahoo VoIP Challenges Skype

There’s been a lot of online discussion in the past two days about Yahoo’s move to upgrade the VoIP capabilities of its IM service, including low-priced dial-in and dial-out functionality (e.g., domestic U.S. calling at one cent per minute). Michael... More...


December 6, 2005

Pulver Predicts Voice to Become Part of eCommerce Strategies

VoIP pioneer and conference marketing genius Jeff Pulver has just posted his predictions for 2006, and most of them seem right on the mark. One of the most intriguing predictions that seems likely to come true is that the support... More...


Sun Rocket Debuts $10/Month VoIP Service

Like most analysts, I receive dozens of press releases a day, but one that just came over the transom from VoIP provider SunRocket caught my eye. SunRocket, which just raised $25 million from an investment round led by Mayfield Partners,... More...


November 30, 2005

Mossberg: Skype's New Rev Could Propel It Into the Mainstream

Influential Wall Street Journal personal tech columnist Walt Mossberg has been testing Skype’s new revision, Skype 2.0, along with some nifty sounding handsets designed to help Skype work just like a regular phone. His verdict: Despite some flaws, this new... More...


GoogleTalk Has Its Own Blog

Even if it’s headed for some kind of come-uppance, Google is a cool company right now. Perhaps because it purchased Blogger, or perhaps it’s just the corporate culture, but Google really does corporate blogging well. The latest evidence: the company... More...


November 29, 2005

Most Vonage Areas Not Meeting e911 Requirements

Yesterday was the deadline for VoIP providers to comply with the FCC’s e911 rules. And based on the reports, a few VoIP providers aren’t yet in full compliance, meaning that huge chunks of their territories are off-limits for marketing new... More...


November 28, 2005

Does VoIP Stink? Yeah, But That Won't Stop Growth

This piece at Business Week.com takes a look at the high level of poor quality of service for VoIP. The well-written piece by Olga Kharif documents what those of us who have VoIP already know: calls get dropped, sound quality... More...


November 21, 2005

Skype's Retail Move & Network Neutrality

As Reuters reports, Skype “is reaching for the American consumer mainstream by selling its telephone kits in RadioShack stores.” Beginning Monday, RadioShack will also have a special kiosk to feature Skype products, including a new Motorola headset that uses short-range... More...


November 18, 2005

How Would Pipe-Owners Respond to the Google Internet?

In a post entitled Google-Mart, Robert X. Cringely, predicts that Google will deploy local servers linked by the fiber optic capacity it has been buying on the cheap to “effectively take over the Internet. Oh they won’t steal it or... More...


November 17, 2005

Sony, Yak Launch Free Video VoIP Services

Sony Electronics and IP-based video communications company GlowPoint have joined the ranks of companies pushing the VoIP model toward the free end of the spectrum. The two companies announced yesterday the launch of Sony’s IVE or Instant Video Everywhere service... More...


November 15, 2005

Court Allows e911 Rules to Proceed

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled today that the FCC’s e911 rules can proceed, shooting down the request for a stay of the regulations by VoIP providers, such as Nuvio. While it’s not clear... More...


November 14, 2005

Start-Up Stoke Aims at Fixed-Mobile Convergence

A stealth venture backed by blue-chip investors, named Stoke, is going to come out from behind its veil today, according to this Reuters piece. Mountain View, CA-based Stoke has a plan to bridge the gap between fixed and mobile telephony... More...


Cable Telephony Tops the Four Million Mark

While the telcos threaten to enter the multichannel video business in competition with cable, cable operators entered the phone business years ago, but really picked up steam with the industry’s launch of VoIP services last year. And according to the... More...


November 8, 2005

Google Local Mobile Maps: A Killer App?

As Cynthia noted yesterday, a piece in the Wall Street Journal reported that Google has made Google Maps and Google Local service available to users of more than 100 different cellular phones. I may be wrong, but this sounds like... More...


FCC Relents on e911-Related VoIP Service Cut-Offs

The FCC today issued a public notice on the specific items of information VoIP providers must submit to the Commission regarding their efforts to comply with new e911 requirements. In an almost buried manner, the notice tells VoIP providers that... More...


November 6, 2005

Pulver on Communication Policy War, Round II

In a discussion of a House Energy and Commerce Committee Staff Working Draft Bill, Jeff Pulver suggests that the concept of Net Freedoms may not amount to much if a “fair price” and “non-discrimination principle” are not attached to end... More...


November 3, 2005

Senate Bill Grants Reprieve on e911

The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would give VoIP providers relief from the tight deadlines imposed by the FCC last May in its e911 order. The Commission’s order set a November 28 deadline by which VoIP providers... More...


November 1, 2005

Origin of the Word "Skype"

A bit of trivia amid all the heavy issues: Skype Journal has an item on the origin of the word Skype. Niklas Zennstrom and some of the other early-days Skype workers originally called their PC-to-PC voice service “Sky peer-to-peer,” which... More...


October 31, 2005

Broadband Access: Who Pays Who For What, and Why?

Ed Felton, a Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs at Princeton University, raises some interesting questions in response to Ed Whitacre’s comments quoted here and here by Business Week, and discussed in earlier IPD posts here and here. [Whitacre]... More...


October 24, 2005

EFF, CDT and Pulver to Appeal FCC's CALEA Rules

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology and Pulver.com plan to file a notice of appeal tomorrow at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit regarding the FCC’s extension of wiretapping requirements to VoIP providers.... More...


October 20, 2005

eBay's Whitman: VoIP Will Be Free in Five Years

Like Rupert Murdoch before her, eBay’s CEO Meg Whitman said that VoIP will be free within five years, according to this Business Week TechBeat piece by Rob Hof. “Whitman admitted that rampant competition no doubt will drive what little Skype,... More...


October 18, 2005

Yahoo's Semel Hints at Bigger VoIP Play Ahead

Yahoo issued its Q3 05 earnings today and during the earnings call, CEO Terry Semel hinted that the company has a bigger VoIP play ahead. When asked what Yahoo plans to do in the voice arena, Semel said “our voice... More...


October 11, 2005

VoIP Growing at Scorching Pace

I’ve just finished revising my VoIP projections, and have had to up the estimates (once again) based on healthy growth rates reported by the providers and my conversations with some of the leading VoIP players. (Take a look at today’s... More...


September 28, 2005

Capitol Hill Takes a Post-Katrina Shine to VoIP Providers

VoIP played an important role in helping to maintain some semblance of communications in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, and legislators are taking notice. According to this piece by Drew Clark in the National Journal’s Tech Daily, Senator Bill Nelson... More...


September 27, 2005

FCC Postpones e911 Deadline for VoIP Providers

Under increasing pressure from both industry and the press, the FCC relented today and postponed its deadline for forcing VoIP providers to begin disconnection efforts related to its e911 ruling. The FCC had required VoIP providers to notify its customers... More...


September 26, 2005

FCC Releases CALEA Order

The FCC released last Friday its CALEA First Report and Order covering law enforcement wire-tap access to VoIP and broadband providers. The order, adopted in early August, is controversial given that CALEA, the statute governing law enforcement’s ability to wiretap... More...


September 22, 2005

SBC's Stephenson: Free VoIP is Just Illogical to Me

The Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference continued with the theme of free VoIP during the discussion with SBC’s COO Randall Stephenson today. Not surprisingly, Stephenson scoffed at Rupert Murdoch’s notion that voice will be free within three years, but added an... More...


BellSouth's Ackerman on Free Voice: I've Heard This All Before

It’s kind of a crazy ongoing theme at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference, but the issue of whether voice service will soon be free (that is, available at no charge to consumers) keeps cropping up — Rupert Murdoch started this wave... More...


September 21, 2005

Brian Roberts Counters Murdoch on Free VoIP

Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference today is a lot of fun, if for no other reason than to hear the titans of the media world disagree on fundamental trends. News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch predicted earlier today that VoIP would be free... More...


Murdoch: VoIP Will Be Free Within Three Years

Speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia Conference today, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch predicted that VoIP services will be offered for free within three years. “I believe that free voice will be ubiquitous, not within ten years but within three years,”... More...


September 20, 2005

VoIP: Too Soon to Say "Stop the Madness," But....

VoIP is suddenly everywhere, and it’s not just because VON is taking place in Boston. Literally, consumers can currently pick from among three or four VoIP providers, whether Vonage, AT&T, a cable operator, Skype, Verizon, or any of a growing... More...


September 15, 2005

Pulver's Peeved at FCC's Exclusion of VoIP from Meeting

VoIP proponent and all-star Jeff Pulver is peeved at the FCC again, this time for the Commission’s exclusion of VoIP industry representation at its monthly meeting. The FCC decided to hold its regular meeting at a BellSouth emergency call center... More...


September 12, 2005

Charter Details Frustration With e911 Notification Process

St. Louis, MO-based cable operator and VoIP provider Charter Communications released today a filing it submitted to the FCC on 9/1 detailing problems the company has had with the notice and acknowledgement provisions of the Comission’s new interconnected VoIP E911... More...


Does the Skype-eBay Combo Pose Privacy Problems?

Dan Gillmor raises an interesting question about the Skype-eBay combination: are there heightened privacy risks at stake with this deal? Gillmor says that Skype has stonewalled security experts who want to examine the soundness of Skype’s encryption technology. That fact... More...


It's Not Hype: Skype is Worth What eBay is Paying

The techno-cognescenti seem to be up in arms over eBay’s $4.1 bil. purchase of Skype, saying that the VoIP pioneer isn’t worth that much money. Business Week’s Rob Hof (who is clearly an early riser having blogged about the deal... More...


September 10, 2005

China Telecom Blocks Skype

News reports abound regarding a move by an arm of China Telecom to block Skype calls. The Shenzhen branch of the telco, which is the largest fixed service telecommunications provider in China, has begun blocking calls from Skype users in... More...


September 9, 2005

Vonage Was Lifeline for NOLA Officials

A page one article in today’s Wall Street Journal describes how a Vonage phone link proved critical to providing communications between city officials and the outside world during the disaster in New Orelans. According to the piece by Christopher Rhoads,... More...


August 31, 2005

New Acronym Invades IP World: VOIM

With both Google and Microsoft chasing VoIP over instant messaging, it was bound to happen: a new acronym to describe this somewhat niche communications activity has cropped up. The Deal’s TechConfidential blog even has a headline using the new acronym.... More...


August 29, 2005

UK Regulator Begins VoIP Inquiry

While VoIP is a surging business in the U.S., it lags in many other parts of the world, due, in part, to the varying levels of broadband penetration globally. IP telephony hasn’t caught on in the UK, where broadband penetration... More...


August 20, 2005

VoIP Makes It Onto Jeopardy

The term “voice-over-IP” has long been considered an inside-baseball phrase, with most VoIP providers pitching the service to consumers as “digital voice” or “broadband voice.” But, the ungainly term is apparently more widely known among the general public than you... More...


August 19, 2005

Colleges Test Wireless VoIP

Three universities, Texas A&M, Northwestern University and the University of Michigan are testing a service from VeriSign that puts wireless phones on their IP networks. University officials say the new platform is a way of keeping the faculty and student... More...


August 17, 2005

Skype Lays Claim to 50 Million Registered Names

VoIP phenomenon Skype is the subject of much-rumored sales talk — the latest scuttlebutt has Murdoch paying $3 bil. for the privately held company based in Luxembourg. But most seasoned observers scoff at the notion that Skype, which offers VoIP... More...


August 15, 2005

Nuvio Challenges FCC 911 Rules

VoIP provider Nuvio has filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the FCC’s ruling that VoIP providers must provide 911 services by November. The Commission ordered VoIP companies to make their services... More...


August 12, 2005

Critics Threaten Lawsuit Over FCC's Net Wiretap Rules

Wired News has a good piece on the reaction of civil libertarians to the FCC’s ruling last week that expands wiretapping rules to VoIP and other Internet-related service providers. The detractors, which include the Electronic Frontier Foundation, People for Internet... More...


August 10, 2005

NSF Funds VoIP Tracking Research

CNET’s Declan McCullagh has a piece about a National Science Foundation grant awarded to a researcher at George Mason University. Xinyuan Wang, an assistant professor of software engineering at the school, has developed a technology that imprints “signatures” in Skype... More...


August 8, 2005

News Corp in Talks to Acquire Skype?

According to the Independent: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is understood to have made a bid approach to the fast- growing internet phone group, Skype, which may have valued the two-year-old operation at almost $3bn (£1.7bn)…However, talks fell apart last month,... More...


August 5, 2005

Pulver Posts Plea to FCC

VoIP pioneer and publishing whiz Jeff Pulver has posted a plea on his website urging the FCC to adopt Internet user protections when it deregulates DSL by reclassifying the high-speed option as “information service,” and thus free of common carrier-type... More...


July 24, 2005

VoIP Illegal in China

Courtesy of Skype Journal, China’s Ministry of Information Industry has said that it has yet to formulate a policy on VoIP and warned that the VoIP businesses operating in the country may be illegal. Netease (NTES), Tom Online (TOMO), Skype,... More...


July 21, 2005

Skype Aims High: Hopes to Be a Communications Backbone

VoIP provider Skype is no doubt hot — the company is growing at a scorching pace, with 5.3 million subscribers worldwide, and provides the foundation for a host of new audio and video services. This week Skype announced it is... More...


July 15, 2005

Searching the Web for Answers

Matthew Koll, chairman and founder of Wondir, discusses his company’s “live question-and-answer” approach to online search in a MediaPost interview with marketing consultant Max Kalehoff. We’d like people to think of Wondir as the service to use when you wonder,... More...


Vodafone to Block Skype Calls on Cell Phones

The German unit of voice giant Vodaphone has adopted a policy to block VoIP provider Skype’s calls on its cell phones, a plan designed to take effect in 2007. While Vodaphone doesn’t offer an explanation for the new policy, the... More...


July 5, 2005

Canadian VoIP Pricing Round-Up

Mark Evans, who keeps his finger on the pulse of the Canadian communications market, has an excellent summary of VoIP pricing in Canada. His assessment: Primus’ TalkBroadbandPlan at (Canadian) $29.95/month is the best value, with Videtron offering the lowest price... More...


Gizmo Ready to Tackle Skype

Courtesy of Rob Hof at Business Week, MP3.com founder Michael Robertson is gearing up to take market share away from Skype with Gizmo, the working name for a new VoIP service from Robertson’s SIPphone. Gizmo’s competitive advantage: it uses the... More...


July 1, 2005

Must-Read: VoIP Fraud Scams Cost Providers

Voxilla’s Carolyn Schuk has an excellent piece on a little-know problem plaguing VoIP providers: scammers sign up for VoIP services at low international call rates, but then place calls with fly-by-night call termination companies that end up charging the voice... More...


June 29, 2005

Markoff on Web's New Wave of Bottom-Up Creativity

Today’s New York Times features an article by John Markoff entitled “Web Content by and for the Masses.” In it, Markoff suggests that new web-based services—including Yahoo’s Flickr and My Web 2.0, Technorati, Google Earth and a new online game... More...


June 19, 2005

That Sucking Sound: Voice Traffic Flooding to Skype

Mark Sullivan’s 6/16 piece in Light Reading, “Skype Rules North American VoIP,” cites VoIP usage data compiled by broadband management company Sandvine Inc, including the following: Calls using Skype Technologies SA account for nearly half of the VOIP minutes used... More...


June 18, 2005

Geddes Sees Problems with BT's Fusion

At Telepocalypse, Martin Geddes explains why he’s not so impressed with British Telecom’s recently announced plan to launch a hybrid fixed/mobile phone service, which BT’s press release heralds as “an important milestone in the broadband revolution which is allowing people... More...


June 15, 2005

Bloggers Break Yahoo! Buy of Dialpad

If the traditional media companies aren’t already nervous about the amazing rise of dot.com era superstars Google and Yahoo, they should be. And if the traditional business press isn’t worried about blogs, well, let’s hope they stay that way. One... More...


June 6, 2005

Comcast's Alchin: No More Silos

As everyone in Washington knows, the great debate in communications policy circles is how to create a new “layered” approach to communications regulation, a framework advanced most prominently by Kevin Werbach. Given that services such as voice-over-IP cross boundaries... More...


June 1, 2005

Video-Over-Voice-Over-IP Has Arrived

Courtesy of SkypeJournal, a new mind-blowing phenomenon: video over VoIP technology. A company called Dialcom has released the video4skype plugin, which enables video telephony for Skype users. It’s free and according to Skype Journal’s Bill Campbell, works just fine,... More...


May 26, 2005

Suggestions for Improving the Skype Experience

Martin Geddes of Telepocalypse provides a wish list of Skype features he’d like to see added (or hasn’t yet discovered). This follows an earlier post in which he discusses the “interruptive” nature of Skype and IM and suggests directions... More...