This week we've been talking about VOIP, which uses data lines, not phone lines, to make and receive calls. It's ideal for virtual call centers because it's so cheap, so cheap that some VOIP companies are having trouble making any money. In fact, we're told by Inbabble, the mobile applications blog ...
The second largest US VOIP provider, SunRocket, which called itself the the 'no gotcha' phone company," stopped service to its customers last week. Actually, it shut itself down last month this week so fast they forgot to close down their sales website. Their customer service line offered callers a brief recording: "We are no longer taking customer service or sales calls. Goodbye." But their main office number still said, "If you're calling with a marketing opportunity, please press 3."
SunRocket's demise left more than 200,000 customers without telephone service. The third largest US VOIP provider, Packet8, was named one of the company's "preferred VOIP replacements" (the other is TeleBlend) by Sherwood Partners, who will be handling SunRocket's bills. Packet8 agreed to allow SunRocket's customers to switch to them for free. Packet8 will even throw in a free month. But they won't give credit for the US$199 that many customers paid in advance to get one year of service (with other plans as low as US$9.95 a month). Packet8's website says, "8x8 is not acquiring the assets of SunRocket, nor can it honor any prepaid amounts paid to SunRocket."
But Packet8's proposal may not win with consumers. The number one US VOIP company, Vonage, is offering a better deal: two free months with no activation fee. Smaller VOIP companies are making similar appeals: Lingo is also offering free equipment. TeleGeography Research says that the vast majority of US customers get their IP telephony service through cable companies, such as Cox, Comcast and Cablevision, if they have IP telephony at all. Skype is another popular VOIP provider.
Customers say they appreciated SunRocket's easy self-service interface, and some of them used it to forward their SunRocket calls to a phone that worked. Former managers suspect that SunRocket's vendors, such as Level 3 Communications and Global Crossing, may have abruptly shut down the service.
Other VOIP companies charge more than SunRocket did, but maybe charging a fair price isn't such a bad thing under the circumstances.
Photo: Rotorhead
From what I've been reading, it looks like Packet8 ended up with around 20,000 of SunRocket's old customers, and Vonage got a little bit more. I would like to know how many Teleblend picked up, so if anyone knows, let's hear it.
I really agree with your statement that "maybe charging a fair price isn't such a bad thing under the circumstances". With Vonage still losing millions of dollars every quarter, and SunRocket going out of business, it looks like the stand alone VoIP companies need to charge more to stay in business.
Did you see Packet8's press release a couple of weeks ago that said they turned a profit? That makes them the only pure voip player to actually make money. Maybe Vonage can steal some of their top people and learn how to do that before they go under and drop 2.45 million voip customers back on the market...
Posted by: VoipSpider | August 11, 2007 11:17 AM | Permalink to Comment