CNET’s Ben Charney, who I consider a very good writer, must be getting lots of information from SBC and Verizon’s PR team for his story about AT&T’s pull out takes a very interesting slant, and attempts to derail AT&T’s CallVantage.
He asserts that bundling is the future, and that’s SBC’s big push these days.
One point he makes that I agree with has to do with the idea of borrowing someone elses network, but he blends in Vonage, 8×8 and Skype together, unfairly. First Vonage has no network. They ride over the public Internet, much like Verizon’s new offering will for the next six to nine months. 8×8 uses Level3 (a very good move which insures their quality will be high) and Skype works with a range of carriers including Level3, iBasis, Colt and Teleglobe (which includes ITXC since the acquisition/merger.) Each of those are very different compared to say, AT&T CallVantage which rides on the AT&T Data Network, the one that got super enhanced as far as reach and capabilities when AT&T took over the IBM Network–AT&T got the network, and the technology, IBM got a long term deal to use it back in the 90s.
What people forget is IBM used this rock solid network to connect all their systems and THEIR CUSTOMERS systems for years. It has been maintained, updated and provided the blueprint basically for Level3 to follow. Since AT&T peers with Level3, it will not be a surprise to me to see some type of more enhanced service levels between the two down the road, so the VoIP players using Level3 and AT&T will be the winners as this will be a game of consolidation and attrition.