What vexes VoIP users?

William Pitcock nenolod at systeminplace.net
Tue Mar 1 09:32:31 UTC 2011


Hi,

On Tue, 1 Mar 2011 09:25:23 +0000 (GMT)
Tim Franklin <tim at pelican.org> wrote:

> > I do not live over there, I have never seen a Vonage or Magic jack
> > or any other VoIP service ad on TV in the UK, ever. 
> 
> Vonage *are* advertising on UK TV.  Hardly the carpet-bombing the OP
> suggests is the case in the US, but they are doing something.
> 
> > It is quite a different market here. I can get POTS services over
> > the same copper from, I'd say, about 5 different companies. Maybe
> > more, I have not counted. I guess the competition already available
> > on the copper would largely preclude anything but the cheapest VoIP
> > service.
> 
> For UK national calls, which pretty much all the POTS providers are
> offering for "free" (read "bundled"), I tend to agree - especially
> given that the POTS providers who *aren't* BT (Residential) are
> largely having to lease at least the last mile copper from BT
> (OpenReach).  The Vonage TV ads that I've seen in the UK are pitched
> at offering cheap / free / bundled international calls, and the
> target market for that I believe is both different and smaller.

That is the same market Vonage is now targeting in the US, basically.
National calling in the US is basically bundled with most calling plans
now.  I'm not convinced that many people use Vonage in the US - my
experience with it was that it was not as reliable as the VOIP
products offered through the various broadband providers I have had.

William




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