Filed in archive
Technology
by tj on June 15, 2004
The NYT is pretty gloomy about the prospects of independent start-ups as Vonage and Skype in the booming VoIP market.
"The findings, based on a poll of 1,000 consumers in the two countries to be released today, suggest that the market for low-priced Internet phone services will most likely be dominated by phone companies like AT&T and cable providers, and possibly local phone carriers, but not the new entrants that control much of the Internet market now.I pretty much disagree with th report. Skype is at least a strong buy for many existing phone companies as they have created a new client relationship to 10 million downloaders in the last 6 months that are fine with the kind of connection Skype delivers.
"The companies with existing relationships with consumers have huge advantages," said Martin Kon, a consultant at Mercer and the author of the survey. "It's an uphill battle for the upstarts with no customer base."
While Internet calling, which sends voice calls as data packets over the Internet, is considerably cheaper than traditional calling, most consumers will not switch solely because of price, Mr. Kon said."
Permalink: VoIP providers facing though competition
Trackback: http://publish.creative-weblogging.com/publish/mt-tb.pl/2212
Addthis
Ask
Blinklist
del.icio.us
Digg
Fark
Facebook
Google
Lycos
Ma.gnolia
Mr Wong
Netscape
Netvousz
Newsvine
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Slashdot
Tailrank
Technorati
Wink
Yahoo
Vote for VoIP providers facing though competition:
|
Rating: 9.33 out of 3 vote(s) cast.
|
Response from:
grant
(06/16/04 7:16pm)
Subscribe
Use the search to look for other interesting posts
| RSS |  See all blog subscribe options |
 What is RSS? | |
| Yahoo! |
|
| Addthis |
|
| Bloglines |
|
| Newsletter | |
| Follow us on Twitter! |
But cable co's are a different story. They may pose a problem for Vonage. Although their products are teathered to their networks and Vonage can offer services that go beyond the cable network's reach.
The real problem for Vonage and company are a new class of local carriers. Like Talk. New carriers that are buying into the local telephone business with new equipment and minimal union costs.
I have both Vonage and Talk. Vonage costs me $14 a month and Talk $26. $10 of the Talk bill are taxes, etc.