Doug Mohney has penned an excellent piece about what will hasten the death spiral of Vonage. His well timed editorial, based largely around the announcement by Verizon to rollout a real VoIP service called Digital Voice (wow what a creative brand name) is well in keeping with my rationale as to why the consumer VoIP pioneer is on the ropes.
Mohney rightfully points out that triple and quad play plans from both the telcos (AT&T, Verizon and Qwest) as well as the efforts from the cable MSO’s will put Vonage in a stranglehold as the customers begin to say, “oh, heck, the pricing is better to switch,” or as the incentives to switch over become far too attractive.
Vonage has no play at this point, unless they move into some sort of wireless offering to compliment their land line. Though I’ve heard rumors that they are considering it, given the economic climate, their lack of credit worthiness and the debt already over their head, I’d say “that dog don’t hunt” either.
So who would you recommend as a Vonage replacement. I don’t want to go to big cable or the telcos.
Doug K.
Doug,
If it’s for your home, I’d start with either BroadVoice or VoicePulse. Both have been around almost as long as Vonage and have proven to be reliable.
Another option is Earthlink and their TruVoice service.
If you want more feature rich and more flexible paying models think about Junction Networks OnSip service which is better for business, the Fusion One service from PhoneFusion or service from InPhonex.
You can also get a PhoneGnome if you still have a PSTN line, pick your Long Distance provider and have the best of both for little money.