Small Business Tech

We have followed the travails of Vonage who seems to be sued by every other communications provider. Initial Suit...Vonage Response

According to Reuters, it appears that Vonage has lost a case with AT&T.

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Labels: VOIP, Vonage

Vonage has assembled a web site where their customers and supporters are encouraged to contact Verizon and sign a petition. They also have information about the pending patent infringement case.

On the Vonage freetocompete.com site, Vonage really comes out shooting. The pull quote at the top of this post is what appears at the top of the home page. The site has a certain edgy voice that makes Vonage sound scrappy. I think that it is a good voice to use - The poor innocent VOIP pioneer being fought by the big evil corporation.

There might be a couple hundred thousand hardcore Vonage fans who will utilize some of the services on this site. I doubt it will sway the case, but it does give Vonage a platform to tell their story.

Labels: Verizon, VOIP, Vonage

I know that many people and small businesses use VOIP from Vonage. Fortunately the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided yesterday to allow Vonage to continue to sign up new customers. This is part of the patent infringement case brought against Vonage by Verizon. You can read more at ZDNet.

One quote struck me as odd. An analyst near the end of the article indicates that even though Vonage can continue to sign new customers they will "...be kind of swimming upstream...in terms of marketing and commercial appeal." I wonder if she is referring to this case. Only the geekiest of geekdom even know that this is happening. Most people just want to know if it works. I think that Vonage's current campaign tells that story well.

Here is the entire analyst contribution to the article...

Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus who attended Tuesday morning's arguments, said she was left with the impression that the appeals court judges were leaning toward Vonage's side in some aspects of the dispute. But until a final decision emerges, Vonage may find it more difficult to attract new customers who may fret about the service's future.

"Even though legally they can sign up new customers," Arbogast said in a telephone interview, "I think they're still going to be kind of swimming upstream over the next couple of months in terms of marketing and commercial appeal." -ZDNet

Disclosure: I have been a customer of both companies for many years.

Labels: Verizon, Vonage