November 6th, 2005
Caution! Don't put all your eggs in VoIP service bundle
Bundled service offerings that combine VoIP, cable, Internet access and maybe even cell are coming on strong. Expect to see more initiatives along the line of SprintNextel’s deal with four cable providers to bundle cell service along with VoIP, cable and broadband Internet.
Marketing for these bundles will be undertaken with a loud voice. But what about the risks?
Senior citizens in Plantation, Fla., Esther and Bernard Marcus could tell you a thing or two about these risks.
They get their phone, cable and Internet service from one company. That’d be Comcast.
But eight days following restoration of their electrical power after Hurricane Wilma, none of their Comcast services were working.
"By putting all their telecom eggs in one basket, consumers and small businesses in South Florida might be better off all but a few weeks of the year," writes South Fla. Sun-Sentinel business reporter Ian Katz. "But what about when a single broken cable puts phone, Internet and TV service out of commission?"
"’ That’s something most people don’t think about when they sign up for bundled services,’" Katz quotes Atlanta-based telecom analyst Jeff Kagan as saying.
I think that is the downside of these attractively priced bundled services that companies such as Comcast, SBC and other broadband providers now entering VoIP are going to gang up on indies such as Vonage, Packet8, and others.
I can visualize the TrackBacks now. What could would Vonage do you if your Internet service was/is still out?
Ah-hah, but reporter Katz points to a fellow name of Benjamin Keeley, CEO of Hollywood, Fla.-based ticketing and reservations software developer VNS International Inc.
"Since Vonage’s service is portable," writes Katz, "Keeley was able to set up the equipment at the data center where he has his computer servers. He can’t answer the phone there, but callers get an answering machine and Keeley can check for messages."
You know what? If I am a marketer for one of the stand-alone VoIP service, I would craft messages that would target the vulnerabilities of bundled offerings. Frankly though, I don’t see enough of this message getting out now.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
