January 8th, 2007
Vonage to pair with EarthLink Muni Wi-Fi: but here's what ought to happen next.
This morning, Vonage announced a partnership with EarthLink that would involve resellng of EarthLink's municipal wireless services in several markets.
As one who has frequently maintained that Vonage needs to start offering bundled services to compete with its major broadband competitors, I recognize that this is a needed first step.
A first step, but barely a toe in the water in terms of overall geographic and marketplace impact.
It seems to me that what Vonage needs to do now is pursue more muni WiFi alliances with other access providers.
Not only that, but Vonage should think about "triple play" by pairing up with a cell provider who is young and hungry as they are.
So how about Cricket Wireless? They are constantly expanding into new markets and territories,including San Diego and my hometown of Portland. What's more they are brashly flaunting the traditional cellphone carrier model by not insisting on those, well, "substantial penalty for early withdrawal" service contracts.
Vonage for VoIP, MuniWi-Fi partnerships for WiFI, Cricket for cell. Now that's a trifecta worth a bet. Or, at least worth chirping about.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
