VoIPWatch

WSJ on Voice IM

Talk about a story that's late. The Wall Street Journal has a story about Voice over IM clients, focusing on Yahoo and MSN, omitting Skype and AIM.

The write pans Yahoo Messenger and seems to give the nod to MSN Messenger.

It would have more interesting if he had reviewed Skype and GizmoProject.

Just Try And Move Your Number

Last summer, pal Bob Cox of The National Debate had a problem porting his number with Cablevision when he moved around the corner in New Rochelle New York. Now it seems a Time Warner Cable customer has a similar problem.

It seems local number portability, which should be easier in the VoIP universe doesn't apply to the MSO's in and around the Big Apple.

Vonage Starts To Lobby in D.C.

More and more each day Vonage starts to behave like the telco they claim they're not. Now they even have hired lobbyists to keep the beltway boys (and girls) better informed.

Drunken Sailor Spending @ Vonage

Ted Shelton draws attention to something I've pointed out before. The spending to the point of excess that Vonage seems to be doing.

The kind of numbers which Ted alludes to numbers that are out of the stratosphere and one would think that Vonage was Coca-Cola.

First off Vonage only has a million lines. I say only because a spend at the rate they are dolling out the cash makes it almost impossible for a profit to be made until Vonage customers acquisition starts costing them less.

Vonage is a company now looking for an exit that missed the right one along the financial hiway. Now they are trying to find the next off ramp, or worse may need to make a U-Turn to get the value they feel the company is worth, or close.

Given how the FCC keeps layering in added costs and requirements Vonage's low cost operations model is starting to look more and more like old news. Their relationship with Level3 for E911 isn't free, and while they still pass calls over the public internet, they can only survive so long on the mantra of only offering cheap calling.

Mr. Blog On Very Pricey WiFi @ IT EXPO in LA

Oh, I'd say he's a bit upset at the price. So too am I but I get free access in the press room.

Why Is Level3 Having Major Outages?

Last week Level3 had an outage that was at the root level, disrupting all types of Internet traffic and putting some customers, like AOL, off the hook for 20 minutes or so.

While their SLA's require them to provide an answer, the real explanation has yet to surface beyond some comments about an edge router. My call to their usually very responsive PR folks yesterday went unreturned. That's a sure sign that spindoctoring is at work.

Rule number one in crisis management is to be candid, especially with the press. Sadly this seems to not be the case here.

CALEA Opponents Unite

Jeff Pulver is really good at being a catalyst for change. He has largely been the torch bearer for VoIP, SIP and now to help make sense out of the FCC's CALEA interpretation as to how it applies to VoIP.

Deja Vu in Wireless

When Sprint PCS first started many of the cable companies were their partners, then the shares became a tracking stock and eventually the cable operators cashed out.

Now they seem to be getting back into bed together.

Andy In L.A.

I'm in L.A. for IT Expo. Look for relevant posts as needed.

Flock

Check out Flock.

While I'm trying to get del.isio.us to work I do see some very cool features. It's software like this which is kicking Microsoft's butt.