12 April 2007

Why I am sticking with Vonage

Vonage has been in deep sh!t recently after a court found it of infringing on 3 of Verizon's copyrights over VOIP. Stock prices for Vonage has lost more than 80% of its value in less than a year and people are talking about the death of Vonage and maybe the whole VOIP industry.

But I am sticking by Vonage.

Vonage provides good telephony service and affordable rates. There is no other telecommunication company who is comparable (ok, maybe Sunrocket) or is even close! I love the fact that I can just bring my router anywhere in the world and connect to a broadband connection and have phone service - not just any phone service but I have my same phone number! (Ok, you can do the same with Skype)

But the fact of the matter is Vonage is a good company. The problem with the patent system now is that everything is patented, there is no room for competition or innovation, contrary to what the patent system might have been established to do.

VOIP is the future of telecommunications, period. What other traditional telcos are doing now is just buying more time to squeeze the last profits it can from people. In another 5 years, I would think that VOIP would overtake traditional landlines as the primary residential phone line (with cell phones leading the way in overall usage).