I'm not surprised that AOL has decided to dance in the telephony space, again. If you recall years back as they were growing in subscribers they offered a telephone service to subscribers at cheaper than cheap rates by reselling AT&T and handled the billing.
Now they are going into Canada with a VoIP service that will be broadband carrier agnostic. What's even more interesting about the story in Canada's National Post is the reference to branded IP Telephony services being offered by retailers. I actually had a conversation earlier yesterday with a long time Packet 8 Networks investor, and proposed this exact type of direction. Ironically, I proposed that Wal*Mart would be an ideal brand for phone service, as they are already dabbling with the idea of their own MVNO play for cellular service.
Unlike cellular, VoIP has no regulation right now, making it an ideal fishing hole for new revenues for companies, especially reatilers who already have a relationship with the customer.
If VoIP is going to gain traction, a trusted relationship with the buyers of the service are needed.
Along those lines, Viper Network, a San Diego based company signed a deal to have CompUSA to become the first reseller for them. While not branded CompUSA Telephone, the timed trial for sales marks the first VoIP retail deal that I know of here in the USA.
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