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VoIP Provider Vonage Planning IPO?
SixDimensionalArray writes "The
rumor mill is exploding with stories that large voice-over-ip (VoIP) provider Vonage is planning an initial public offering to raise nearly $600 million. This information is interesting coming out not long after Google's recent release of Google Talk, which overs instant messaging/VoIP services PC-to-PC as well as a surge in marketing by VoIP providers such as Covad and Skype. Could this be yet another bubble?"
Who are smart enough not to use TFTP to download configuration and images, knowing full well that major internet operators block TFTP, and have for years.
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Um, what are you talking about? The reason competitive DSL failed is because the providers had to operate over the phone monopoly's lines, which made it all too convenient for the phone companies to push them out in favor of their own DSL. This won't happen with VOIP.
Sure, many people get their internet access through phone company DSL, but it isn't so easy for phone companies to screw with it. In the United States, if a phone or cable company decided to block Vonage and only allow their own digital phone service, that would be called "restraint of trade" and would immediately trigger a lawsuit complete with injunction.
In addition, there are numerous ways to get internet access and there will only be more as time goes on, so it's not something phone companies even have the power to control. People would drop DSL in an instant if they started to restrict what websites and services the average person could use.
As much as phone companies might want to go back to the days of $0.25/min long distance, they can't. There are too many alternatives such as cell phones, calling cards, VOIP, bundled services, that everybody knows that would be way too much to pay for long distance. Vonage may have to fight some uphill battles, but the phone companies do not automatically have them beat like they did the DSL providers.