I was tipped off by Colorado blogger and VoIP Sales Star Keith Bare that Packet8 had gone retail with CompUSA.
The move follows Vonage’s move in the same direction a few months back.
I’ve evaluated Packet8 and find nothing wrong with what they offer. Their service rides on Level3’s backbone and they offer a great value with $19.99 a month service. I remember my discussion with one of the 8×8 Network executives about wanting to be ready to go when they went retail. It appears they now are.
I also don’t expect this to be the last retail play, and fully expect to see AT&T’s CallVantage and others eventually move in this direction. The difference will be marketing. AT&T has the bucks and talent to do that. How far Packet8 can go is a question still, despite some very nice and highly capable people working there. I would be more excited if they rolled out their VideoPhone with CompUSA as that is really something to behold given for how many years (1964 World’s Fair) the world has been hearing about a true picturephone.
Packet8 has yet to execute on a marketing program, and has lots of resellers and shareholders who question how fast and how broad they are going with their efforts. That aside, for Level3 they remain another partner who will move traffic and minutes over their all fiber network.