VoIP

Net phone operator StanaPhone Communications no longer offers free phone calls between computers running its software, and any home, office or mobile phone. It used to offer 100 minutes, replenished automatically every 30 days.

StanaPhone was trying to recycle a strategy from the 1990s, when Yahoo, America Online and Microsoft's MSN introduced Net phone calling through their instant-messaging applications. At first, the scheme prompted millions of minutes of calls, but when IM makers started charging for PC-to-phone service a few months later, traffic plunged.

When it started the offer if June, a StanaPhone representative acknowledged the roll of the … Read more

Are these the salad days for Vonage and other standalone VoIP providers, and from here on it'll be down hill? SBC Chief Financial Officer Richard Lindner all but predicted as much Monday during a conference call with analysts to discuss SBC's latest financial results. He told financial analysts that independent VoIP companies' growth is slowing down.

To be sure, VoIP's growth is far from over, just look at the thousands of new customer additions at Vonage every week, and the tens of thousands flocking to free phone operator Skype each day. But Lindner is touching on an … Read more

Skype confirmed Thursday that its Web site is inaccessible in some areas served by Telmex, Mexico's telephone monopoly. Skype isn't speculating as to why.

As a result, Telmex broadband subscribers can't sign-up for Skype, and existing Skypers can't use online customer care, replenish minutes on the pre-paid calling cards or order other premiums.

Telmex's alleged move is typical of how government-owned phone companies in places like Panama, Costa Rica, Qatar are defending themselves against lower-priced VoIP phone providers.

SBC's Internet telephony operation got a competitive 911 service up and running in a few weeks. No surprise it turned to SBC, the mother ship, for what it needed.

Net phone operators independent of SBC say this goes way beyond just preferential treatment; it's strong evidence of unfair forces at work as time runs out for fast-growing Net phone providers to fully support 911 emergency services, a key but costly public safety feature that few now provide.

Consider the experience of commercial U.S. Net phone provider Vonage. It has been several months since Vonage asked SBC for … Read more

So what's VoIP Inc. up to? The two-year-old Net phone service provider will only say it's soon going to offer "free VoIP to consumers for the first time."

That's as much direction as telling a lost motorist to "turn right at Arizona." But hints dropped since February indicate that VoIP Inc. may challenge conventional wisdom about how much you can charge for phone service and still stay in business. So far, $15 a month seems to be as low as any phone service provider is willing to go.

Blogger Mark Evans thinks that &… Read more

A number of public policy groups on Monday released studies that both praised and scorned the economic viability of municipally funded broadband networks.

It's a hot-button issue that has prompted many states to introduce legislation against these projects, while sparking heated responses from cities looking to build their own wireless or fiber broadband networks.

The New Millennium Research Council released two studies penned by the free-market-leaning group Progress and Freedom Foundation raising "serious questions about the need for and viability" of the recent business plan for the city of Philadelphia to build its own wireless broadband network.… Read more

Should the U.S. force SBC and the three other Bell operating companies to open their 911 infrastructure to all Net phone providers?

That's the gist of an investigation U.S. telephone regulators are expected to start soon, says a source. Specifically, the Federal Communications Commission will look into whether local phone giant SBC can dictate the terms for Net phone calls to use its 911 infrastructure, the source said.

A Vonage spokeswoman said the FCC and Vonage met Wednesday to discuss why Vonage 911 calls aren't using SBC's 911 infrastructure, but she refused additional comment.

SBC … Read more

New FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is in an enviable position. His predecessor, Michael Powell, engineered what will be the Martin administration's first major decision to anger state utility regulators. So Martin can blame everything on Powell.

So why is the FCC waiting so long to divulge that it plans to up-end state rules forcing major local phone companies to sell "naked DSL", or high-speed Internet over a digital subscriber line (DSL) that doesn't require a local phone subscription? It's still a waiting game for an FCC confirmation, which was expected as early as Monday.

Martin … Read more