Jeff calls Verizon, and others like, them Parasites in a post found on his blog today. The lack of originality in the VoIP market is really amazing to me. Originality is disruptive. Me too is boring.
While I can see offerings from smaller ISP’s that ride on the Level3 network and not call them boring, doing what Verizon did, which based on the ATA they are using, simply sought out to imitate Vonage did not require a great deal of brain power. Go to a web site. Look at what they have. Tell some techies, make us the same thing. It’s like going to Nathan’s in Brooklyn’s Coney Island for a hot dog with dad. There are only so many ways to have it made, and likely, the person making it just copied an instruction sheet. That’s what Verizon did.
But the free thinkers, like the people behind Skype, Peerio, VoIPSter, SipPhone and heck, even GloPhone are seeking to change the way telephony operates. And those are the companies to watch, not the old, fat and boring companies that make up the telephony roadmap of the past. Sure, some will die, but those that live will change the landscape forever.