Comments on: Vonage: How Low Can You Go?

By: Tech Untangled » Blog Archive » Finally a patent settlement where Vonage doesn't shell out money

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:05:32 +0000

[...] Om thinks that Vonage’s problem is playing the cheap voice game, but Vonage’s primary risk is not cost management (OK marketing/advertising costs has always been an issue), but that Vonage has no Intellectual Property protection. So far mainly the service providers have filed patent infringement lawsuits, but there are many equipment vendors and with many VoIP patents (much like Nortel) who could go after Vonage. Vonage still has many challenges ahead of it, but this settlement gives it yet another breather. [...]

By: And Now Its AT&T’s Turn To Sue Vonage « GigaOM

And Now Its AT&T’s Turn To Sue Vonage « GigaOM — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:49:54 +0000

[...] was ordered to pay $66 million to Verizon, and it recently settled its case with Sprint for around $80 million. AT&T, [...]

By: Sprint Patents Get Vonage Cash « GigaOM

Sprint Patents Get Vonage Cash « GigaOM — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:00:10 +0000

[...] The agreement is valued at $80 million: $35 million for past license use, $40 million for a fully paid future license, and a $5 million prepayment for services. On Sept. 25, a Kansas jury handed down a verdict finding that Holmdel, N.J.-based Vonage had infringed six of Sprint’s patents. Vonage was asked to pay $69.5 million in damages. [...]

By: Skype loses its hype

Skype loses its hype — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:53:26 +0000

[...] VoIP providers, Vonage, is losing patent-infringement lawsuits filed by Sprint and Verizon. Here’s Malik’s summary from 25 September. Vonage lost its CEO in April, and is struggling to keep [...]

By: Martha Arango

Martha Arango — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:37:21 +0000

Don’t think this is Vonage. It looks totally different. Kind of cool though if all these services are actually integrated. Have you found out already who this is?

By: Pamela

Pamela — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:12:36 +0000

Could this be Vonage - DOn’t really believe they would continue developing, but you never know what they have up there probably very long sleeves: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19165054-Skype-Video-leak-Whos-taking-up-a-battle-with-skype
They show a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IjpznRxNLY
Who knows more?

By: Jason Falls

Jason Falls — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:23:10 +0000

I don’t agree with Mr. Seng above. Competitors equipped with a stable network and available technology and that can offer similar or same pricing have an opportunity to become “the other” VoIP until Vonage’s legal woes show their full results.

If I recall correctly, I read recently someone else is suing Vonage for another patent infringement thing. This looks very good for competition.

By: Leveraging VoIP for click to call technology | The Foo Logs

Leveraging VoIP for click to call technology | The Foo Logs — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:02:04 +0000

[...] traditional VoIP providers and the popular peer to peer provider Skype. With VoIP providers like Vonage in trouble and SunRocket shutting down unexpectedly, this might be a good route to go without the monthly [...]

By: Tom Mitchell

Tom Mitchell — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:27:07 +0000

My family and I have loved our Vonage service. It's been the best phone service we've had for the past three years. It'd be sad to see it go. I have Skype In/Out as well, and Vonage blows it away for call quality to standard phone lines. (At least with my ISP, Time/Warner Cable in Dayton, Ohio.)

Anyway, the thing here is that if the traditional land line and cell phone companies are successful in bringing down VoIP's premier brand, then they will be emboldened to take down the rest. I feel that Skype in the U.S. should get ready for trouble. They are next. (Will eBay be willing to fight for Skype after their ill-fitting marriage?)

I know that technically Skype is a different system, but these broad patent interpretations will put all VoIP phone and voice chat services in danger if Vonage falls. I dare say that the phone companies will take on Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL and Google next if they have a successful attack on Skype.

Basically if you transmit a voice over the internet, you could get dragged to court if the phone companies wish to. That's how broad these patent interpretations could get.

By: Jake

Jake — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:00:28 +0000

So here is a good question. Is it best to jump ship with Vonage now or wait to they go under so we can take advantage of the special deals that will come up for former Vonage customers like the one Net2Phone has now for SunRocket customers?

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 15:45:34 +0000

We’ve used Att’s CallVantage [great service],[leaving them because of GWB] going then to Sun Rocket which for us had good service too although not quite as good as ATT’s. We’re with Skype now; service, and sound are great, and we have no regrets. We use an Actiontec Internet Phone Wizard connection to make calls with our cordless phones. My wife would have never accepted any other way of dialing to make her calls. She wasn’t happy at first to have to do 001 the area code and then the number, but she got used to it and the savings quickly.
What’s nots to like? We both have cells phones.

By: Euthanize Hippies

Euthanize Hippies — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:48:53 +0000

I’m only interested in VOIP providers that offer lossless compression…. vonage isn’t one of them

and AOL-style-peer-support is a crazy bad idea

By: James Seng

James Seng — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:22:43 +0000

I said it in my blog and I said it again here. Vonage demise hurts everyone else in the VoIP industry.

To a average investor, they are not likely to know the difference between Vonage and OOMA. They are all VoIP and "damnit, I lost a lot of money on VoIP (Vonage)".

By: Dan Frommer

Dan Frommer — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:24:52 +0000

Will be interesting to see if Vonage's workarounds pass the smell test, and how Q3 went.

Btw, Sprint's ticker is S.

By: Drew

Drew — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:14:50 +0000

Sole Adwords Ad for Keyword “VG”. Nuff said.

By: RandomThoughts

RandomThoughts — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:50:49 +0000

Well, today it went lower. They lost the Verizon appeal and the injunction is to be back in place within a month. Vonage says that they have a workaround, but previously in court they said they didn't (of course after telling the media a week prior that they did.)

These patent lawsuits are not what will kill Vonage. Their business plan did that. The bad part about this is that the investors who bought the stock during the IPO will have nothing left to split up when their lawsuits finally take place.