Vonage loss widens, but settlement boosts shares

Litigation costs eat away at earnings, but settlement with AT&T raises hope that Vonage's legal problems may soon end.

The story "Vonage loss widens, but settlement boosts shares" published November 8, 2007 at 7:03 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[bschmidt25]

Sinking ship

They're going under - it's just a matter of time. The phone companies are suing them into non-existence and unfortunately most people would rather pay their cable operator more money for VoIP service. It's really too bad as I think they are a great alternative.

[Elidine]

Don't count your chickens

Now is the time to buy vonage stock.... it will rebound. Have faith! I have had vonage for like 4 years or more and have had little to no problems with their service.

Its cheap and reliable. They just need to ramp up their commercials again.
Wooo hooo, hoo hoo hoo....

[ebeamsales]

Strategy...

The idea behind the lawsuits brought on by the traditional phone companies was to try to sue Vonage, their competiton, into bankruptcy. I think that's fairly obvious. But the long-term strategy is Verizon, Sprint, et al. are probably flirting with buying out Vonage once they are weakened to the point where they can no longer defend themselves. Same principle M$ uses.

[maeckg]

Vonage was target for lawsuits, but works

I agree that the big telecoms used Vonage as a target to frighten independent VOIP providers. Vonage spent a lot of money spreading the word about VOIP to general public and this is what they reap. The real challenge is that the telecoms, network and cable providers will just integrate VOIP into their services. Vonage has worked great for me the last several years, gives me a service that fits my needs and I would miss it. Cox Cable upgrades caused some issues, but that was not a Vonage problem.
The real competition to landlines and big telecoms is the mobile phone, not VOIP, which is just too small to matter. With Google Android, iPhone, Linux and MS moving massively into mobile as the next big growth area, mobile devices will change things for everybody.
It is a shame that Vonage was used as roadkill by the telecoms. I am keeping the service as long as I can although do not own stock.

[paulej]

And it speaks about the patent problem...

What is most frustrating is that Vonage could be sued for infringing a patent for merely offering a service comprised of off-the-shelf products.

Regardless of whether AT&T or Verizon did have a valid patent that was, indeed, violated, it seems like this is an abuse of the patent system. Whatever Vonage was infringing was most likely a very minor part of their overall system and hardly deserving of such a high award.

Patents were designed to protect whom? Considering fair competition -- and our government wants fair compeititon -- are these high patent awards remotely fair? It certainly does not help the American consumer.

[mpasquin]

vonage

Vonage deserves its problems. It provides a mediocre product and HORRIBLE customer service.

[Chasa1015]

Mediocre ?

Speak for yourself. I am not a stockholder, but have been using Vonage for sixteen months and am very, very happy with the service. I dumped AT&T, and then two VOIP services before going to Vonage. I have NEVER had a problem with their service. I have had problems with my ISP (Cox Cable) that affected my telephone service...but, it was not Vonage's fault.

[Astonct]

Vonage alternative, Unia Telecom

"Signed up and received my package in a week. Plugged right into my router and configured in less than 20 minutes......pretty easy. Definitely an alternative to Vonage. Had Vonage for a year and setting up Vonage was painfull....had to deal with some Indian guy who claimed to be "George Smith".......yea right! Unia took less than 20 minutes...can't beat that. Only issue was ordering additional handsets but those came in 3 days after....not bad at all. Hope this company continues to grow.. funy thing is...Unia in Polish means "Union".... unia Telecom , Union Telecom..
Regardless, the fact that they give a percentage of their earnings to humane / humanitarian causes will definitely serve them very well in the future...thinking of signing up for the service....

Shelly G.

[Superdad66]

Vonage alternative Unia Telecom perfecting service delivery

Vonage alternative Unia Telecom seems to be crafting the art of service delivery to near perfection. They just announced a cap on their subscriber base to five thousand in order to preserve service quality as they expand.
Recent civil actions with vonage is casting serious doubts in the minds of customers including myself. I switched to Unia Telecom 4 days ago. Very socially responsible and customer focused. Though not too competitive on price, with a 100% US based operation and focus on quality, thats surely understandable. Keep jobs here, focus on quality and be socially responsible.....
will surely recommend as a Vonage alternative

S.