Vonage Allowed to Sign New Customers

terrymr writes "The Court of Appeals for the federal circuit has stayed the injunction against Vonage pending their appeal." The appeals judge agreed with Vonage's argument that the amount of consumer churn that Vonage or any telco suffers from would surely mean disaster for their bottom line, were they denied an influx of new customers.

Comments

Woo hoo

[quokkapox]

Woo hoo hoo

Let them sign up all the new customers they want, as long as they reveal how I can expunge that damned jingle from my brain.

Re:Woo hoo

[Dunbal]

as long as they reveal how I can expunge that damned jingle from my brain.

      It's not a jingle, it's actually a song by a japanese girl band called the "5 6 7 8's", and it existed long before the commercials. You can also hear it in the movie "Kill Bill".

Ain't Gonna Help

[The Dobber]

How many people are going to sign up knowing there is a possibility that Vonage will go tits up in the near future?

They're toast.

Re:Ain't Gonna Help

[Anonymous Coward]

How many people know that Vonage is in trouble? A handful of internet tech news readers only, I would wager...

Re:Ain't Gonna Help

[jambarama]

How many people are going to sign up knowing there is a possibility that Vonage will go *** up in the near future?
I can answer that. All of the people who don't know about the patent issues. Like my parents and most of my friends. I took a brief unscientific poll of the dozen people around me. About 3/4ths knew what VOIP was, and of those most knew Vonage. And of everyone, no one had heard of the patent dispute with Verizon.

I think we often overestimate how much the general public knows/cares about this stuff.

Re:Ain't Gonna Help

[timeOday]

Well, personally I do care. I dropped my landline for Vonage a couple years ago, and I'm happy enough. I couldn't speak to their customer service as I've never tried to use it, but the actual phone service seems fine enough to me. Granted, Vonage hasn't been very dynamic about introducing new features to keep people excited (why can't I set up separate voice mail boxes for family members?) but I do think it's saving me money. Mostly I just dread the hassle of finding a new provider and transferring my telephone number, what a pain.

Fundamentally, I don't even see why I'm still stuck paying a phone bill at all. I don't pay an email bill or a filesharing bill.

Zestfully clean

[quokkapox]

Zestfully clean, you're not fully clean unless you're Zest-fully clean.

These things run through my consciousness without my permission. They've invaded my brain via the commercial mass-media during my childhood and adolescence. They are inescapable and pernicious. I'd like to buy the world a Coke.

Go ahead, tell me you've been raised in America and you don't have a corporate media advertising slogan running through the back of your mind now and then. Ancient Chinese secret, huh?

Call me, and I'll explain it.

[ScentCone]

Fundamentally, I don't even see why I'm still stuck paying a phone bill at all. I don't pay an email bill or a filesharing bill.

So, you were hoping that people would know how to reach you by dialing your IP address, perhaps? Who do you think maintains the ability to route calls, from both VoIP and 'analog' networks/carriers, to the number that's assigned to you? Should they be doing that as charity? Do you pay for the IP address you're using? A phone number is pretty much the same thing, only static. I'm guessing your home IP address is probably dynamic, as far as that goes.

Ever use your VoIP service to call a local business that's on POTS? Who do you think bridges that connection, the tooth fairy? And if you've got a technical solution for that process that doesn't cost anything or use any infrastructure, why aren't you sharing that with the rest of the billions of people with hard phone numbers?