AT&T's CallVantage VoIP Service Only has 53,000 Subscribers
Bet this bit of news made the folks at Vonage sigh with relief. Here's an interesting take on how AT&T bungled from Techdirt. I totally agree - AT&T blew how it marketed this service,a nd VoIP is just not that hot yet to the average consumer.
"With all of the hype (and advertising) surrounding AT&T's CallVantage VoIP offering, you would think that they would have been able to sign up a few more than 53,000 subscribers by the end of last year. Considering that Vonage is claiming 15,000 new subscribers every week and Time Warner's VoIP offering is getting at least 11,000, to have only around 50,000 a year or so after launch, is pretty weak. Apparently, AT&T has not been able to get the message out. With SBC claiming that CallVantage will be a major part of their consumer strategy post-merger, some within SBC may want to rethink that with these numbers being known. It's quite likely that many within SBC are quite resistant to the idea of VoIP, since they'll view it as eating away their landline business (which is silly, because if it's not themselves eating away, someone else will eat it for them).
"However, this is yet another indicator that the demand for VoIP still isn't as strong as many believe. The problem, though, isn't in the product, but in how it's being sold. AT&T focused on selling VoIP. The average person doesn't care about VoIP. They care about price and features. If AT&T advertised it as cheap phone service with many more features (both of which VoIP gives them) they'd be in much better shape. Instead, it sounds like they've stalled out and won't be advertising it any more at all. If they're going to give up on that, the least they could do is open up CallVantage as a platform and let others develop useful applications on top of their phone service. That would help drive demand for the service, without AT&T having to do anything. Instead, of course, AT&T will think like a telco, and look to lock stuff up and only allow their own applications to work with CallVantage."
Let' see...as part of my package with BellSouth, I get Complete Choice Plan for local, DSL and unlimited flat rate 24/7 LD all for a hundred bucks a month, of which my flatrate LD plan is just $25 after discounts because I am using BS's other services...and the more cumbersome, aggravating (using 10 digits instead of 7 for local calls), poorer quality, etc., VoIP ATT service cost the same for the same purposes...and, why would I switch, exactly?
Of course, BellSouth is obviously using the same piggyback system on my broadband DSL connection to provide me with cheap flatrate LD, but the quality of my service is impeccable, crystal-clear and it always works...so again, exactly why should I even think about switching?
I agree and that shows why VoIP is still more of a geeky thing or too specialzed for mainstream use. I use Vonage when I travel. I can make endless calls without running up charges. When I was in London on business, I had no long distance charges, becuase everyone was dialing a 415 area code even though it was ringing overseaes. That was very useful.
Bet this bit of news made the folks at Vonage sigh with relief. Here's an interesting take on how AT&T bungled from Techdirt. I totally agree - AT&T blew how it marketed this service,a nd VoIP is just not that hot yet to the average consumer.