Vonage Settles With Verizon for at Least $80M

netbuzz writes "Fresh off agreeing to pay Sprint Nextel $80 million earlier this month, Vonage has now agreed to compensate Verizon at least $80 million to settle their patent dispute, and the total could hit $117 million depending on the outcome of appeals Vonage has pending. 'If Vonage wins rehearing on either the '574 or '711 patent or if the injunction is vacated as to the '574 or '711 patent, Vonage will pay Verizon $80 million. If Vonage does not win rehearing on either the '574 or '711 patent, or if the stay is lifted reinstating the injunction, Vonage will pay Verizon $117.5 million.' And, of course, don't forget AT&T just recently opened charges against the company as well."

Comments

Vonage looks great!

[Big Nothing]

This "Vonage" company seems stable and solid - where can i purchase some stock in the company?

what is this going to do for other VoIP providers?

[Lumpy]

I chose Broadvoice over Vonnage because I wanted Open access. I.E. use my gear unlocked, use asterisk, etc...

Will Other Voip companies be targeted after Vonnage is decimated by the telcos?

Re:Don't forget, no net neutrality

[morgan_greywolf]

Once they finish paying all the phone companies for the patents, then the phone and cable companies will come back and demand extra payment to use their networks. Otherwise, Vonage customers will watch their service degrade until it's unusable. This will continue until Vonage is bankrupt. Exactly. All of this corporate racketeering by the telcos has got to be stopped. Hello? EFF? Where are you?

Note to self...

[JK_the_Slacker]

...Call lawyer. Have him sue Vonage for patent infringement.

Re:Pattent Trolls

[jonesy16]

I have to agree with the other poster whose comment got modded down. While I agree that not buying services from these companies would hurt them (duh), it isn't feasible. In most parts of the country you don't have too many options for a) land telephone, b) internet access, c) cell phone w/ reception. Odds are that in order to get at least one of those three services you're going to have to pony up to Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint. T-Mobile and US Cellular have pretty poor reception where I am. Verizon and Comcast are the only internet providers (and that's really a lesser of two evils) unless you want to go wireless (satellite, etc, $$$). And Verizon is the only POTS provider. So the only way that I can hurt them is to cease my communication to the outside world.

The size of these companies and their control are beyond the scope of what consumers can affect. They muscle competition off of the playing field which has led to the helplessness of consumers at this point. But hey, it's part of the cycle. Another decade or so, after AT&T/Verizon/Sprint have all merged again and widened our collective sphincters a good couple of inches, maybe the governemtn will break them up and we'll start the whole cycle again.

You know?

[Penguinisto]

This is going to sound bad, but it's stories like this that make me feel not so bad when some tiny company (like, say, Eolas) comes along and hammers a big company.

IMHO, software patents in and of themselves suck, but there's a bit of me hoping like Hell that Verizon, AT&T, and all their kith and kin get slammed (soon) with a multi-billion-dollar patent lawsuit from some tiny company no one has ever heard of. Something big enough to hurt.

(or at least something big enough to get legislative attention and end this whole software patent silliness...)

/P

Re:Pattent Trolls

[Volante3192]

Hit them in their pocketbook? You know who that *really* hits, right? Customers.

Hit them where it REALLY hurts. Pull away their sole right to the lines and put it in a government owned utility company whose sole purpose is to upgrade and maintain the lines. Slap em with common carrier status. Stick em in the Tower of London and make them part of the tour.

We can do a lot better than just 'pocketbook' here.

Re:Pattent Trolls

[timeOday]

I hate the local telco so much I went "vonage only." Through these lawsuits I'll still be paying the local telco anyways. You just can't escape.

Re:Pattent Trolls

[HumanPenguin]

Same here.

but I am still stuck with the voids surrounded by sphincter muscles Comcast. It really is impossible to get a telephone line without one of the big phone companies or the cable monopoly now.

Also as the main reason I have vonage is for free calls and a local phone line in the UK.

There is no other US alternative.

The world IS getting smaller and technology is passing the big Telco's because they have sat on their monopolies rather then use their innovations.

instead of providing services customers want to pay for they stick their head in the void and sue innovators or bribe politicians.