Consumer VoIP Arrives in the US
When something hits retail stores is when mass market popularity explodes. Vonage is currently at around 300K subscribers, and this deal with Circuit City to carry startup packages is likely to rapidly increase that number:
Those who sign up at the electronics giant will save $100. An adapter from Circuit City costs $100, but Vonage will offer the first two months of service free — a $70 savings — and waive the $30 activation fee.
USAToday: Circuit City to offer Vonage Internet phone servic
The key factor here for consumers seems to be cost: consumer VoIP providers can offer the same services (or better ones, like multiple phone numbers in different cities) at an overall lower cost.
I still want different services: voice mail via email, a softphone, conferencing, etc.
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Comments
"For years after the telephone...
was invented, in 1876, people thought it was a device that would transmit news, drama, and music: the idea that the telephone was a way to talk to other people took about twenty years to sink in here, and about thirty years in Europe. Similarly, today one hears about shopping, banking, and renting movies on the information highway. These are all possible ways of making money, of course, but the point of the information highway, it seems to me, is that it offers a new way of talking to other people. The trouble people have understanding this simple point is the same trouble people in the nineteenth century had understanding the telephone." -- B1ll G4tes, 8-Oct-93