Vonage Spinning

In the PR trade, the industry that my company is in and where I have spent the bulk of my 34 plus years of working in the story about Vonage in the New York Times today is pure spin control.

Vonage's stock, though creeping upward, is down almost fifty percent (50%) from it's opening day pricing. What's more the company is still losing 2.3 percent per month (based on how they report customer losses) and not really being an innovator.

The point about USB V-Phone is their taking what i2Telecom already was going, over 20 months ago, and adding it to their service offerings. That's hardly innovative in my book.

What's more they have not really done anything that moves them beyond the same world the started back when Jeff Pulver was a co-founder, nor have they shown any signs other than hinting at the next phase of their life beyond new hires.

Their customer service is being pegged as needing improvement, and based on my own efforts to disconnect from Vonage (where I was able to get my number back and ported) no easy group to deal with, nor was a friend's hassle with a defective ATA replacement that required my going to their ace PR guy, Mitchell Slepian, who always is helpful, despite the restrictions his bosses have always placed on him.

Vonage needs to show us all how they plan to grow. Hiring a bunch of corporate types to wrap around the now public company is hardly that, though I'm sure they will do a good job of dressing up the pig. To be different and really innovative Vonage needs new ideas to come to the surface, and needs to impress those of us who know, care and really see the next generation of Voice and Communications.

Comments

[Mark Evans]

you nailed it, andy. i'm not sure how or why the NYT did the story. perhaps vonage gave them an exclusive.