April 15th, 2005
The VoIP phone and access price wars *aren't* "coming": they're here
Last month, I posted my opinion that by 4Q of this year, we’d be seeing widespread VoIP phones for less than $100 - from name brands.
Heck, it’s only 2Q (and barely that), but Packet 8’s already there. They’ve temporarily lowered the post-rebate price of their Packet8 Broadband Consumer VideoPhone from $250 to $99, and cut their monthly unlimited North American dialing plan from $29.95 to $19.95.
Existing subscribers will see their monthly levy drop beginning with their May statements.
What does all this prove? The VoIP phone and subscriber price wars are here. Any provider who has the hubris to charge substantially more for the same plan as Packet8 has been listening to the bean counters, or to their own internal collective ego.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
