What is Digg?107 Comments
- eth3l, on 10/12/2007, -11/+110Sure, an annoying commercial sure is a good reason to remove competition from the marketplace.
- Authustian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+58It's not that i like Vonage, although they were successful in bringing a service to market that Verizon couldn't.
It's that I hate Verizon so much that i don't think I'd bat an eye if all the higher ups suddenly burst into flames. - bmatherlyjr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+53Vonage today
Skype
Open Wengo
PhoneGaim
(and any other voip product on the market)
Tomorrow
Kiss Voip goodbye! I can just feel it. - Cyre, on 10/12/2007, -50/+84GOOD!! Now maybe I won't have to listen to that HORRIBLE woohoo crap on TV anymore.
- bouche, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28such a shame. If I have to start paying Bell $65 a month for basic phone service I will feel personally violated.
I pay $19.99 CAD a month with Vonage and I love it.
My favorite feature isn't even the phoning. I love being able to go online and find an entire report on who called. There are many times I need a phone number when I'm out of town, and I just have to log in to my Vonage listings to find the number. Why doesn't Bell do that? - netdawg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27Eighteen dollars a month for unlimited domestic calling is a "***** fee"?!? You're ***** outa your mind.
- Rickler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26That should be easy. I'll just get a different DSL and phone provider.. oh wait, verizon has a monopoly in my area.
- bleonard, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26verizon's just another big company that would rather litigate then compete. they've got the network and technology to provide voip and beat vonage in the market, but because they were able to win in court, they don't have to. A few verizon shareholders win, a few vonage shareholders lose, but more importantly the industry and technology fail to advance.
- argoff, on 10/12/2007, -7/+31BOYCOT VERIZON!!!
- Margh, on 10/12/2007, -9/+29Seriously, what?
Reply button is right there. - chall2001, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23@scbysnx
Are you just trolling?
How can anyone with even a hint of technical knowledge support method and software patents? The obviousness and broadness of the patents Verizon claims allow them to destroy any VoIP competitor if they choose. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18verzion are a bunch of *****
- cdgod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16This is Vonage saying that the patent is so overly broad, there is no way to do VOIP without infringing upon the patent.
This is very scary stuff... and hopefully a patent review will clear this up.
It's like patenting the microphone after a a bunch of bands have recorded their albums and suing for the rights to the revenue from those albums...
Edit: I use Vonage for a year now. It is incredible and very reliable. Controlling all aspects of my phone from the internet is very nice! This lawsuit only shows the fear that the big Bells have to VOIP and "Facility-less" operations. - sexycommando, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19wouldn't Vonage have done that themselves if it was so easy?
- dree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15ACN is a pyramid scam. http://www.google.com/search?q=acn+mlm
Don't even THINK of helping this dumbass by signing up. - nigel40, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Yet another reason for me to say: I hate Verizon. Verizon sucks. Verizon has nothing but contempt for its customers. Verizon does not believe in fair play. Verizon is not a good corporate citizen. ***** verizon.
- FluffyArmada, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17Yay! Once again, the big guy uses patents to screw over the little guy. U-S-A! U-S-A!
(I know, Vonage isn't exactly tiny, but I'm pretty sure Verizon's bigger.)
Apperantly they "stole" such coveted features as "call-waiting" and "voice mail"...
Whoa... "You can't have that! We stole it first!"
From Wikipedia :
"On June 19, 2006, Vonage acknowledged that Verizon filed a lawsuit charging that Vonage infringed on seven of its patents related to its VoIP service; the patents describe technology for completing phone calls between VoIP users and people using phones on the traditional public switched network, authenticating VoIP callers, validating VoIP callers' accounts, fraud protection, providing enhanced features, using Wi-Fi handsets with VoIP services and monitoring VoIP caller usage. Verizon is using this technology in its own VoIP service called VoiceWing.
In a statement, Vonage said "its services have been developed with its own proprietary technology and technology licensed from third parties." The company also said it would "vigorously defend (against) the lawsuit." Vonage said it hadn't been previously notified by Verizon that the company thought it was infringing on its patents.[10]
On 8 March 2007 a jury found Vonage guilty of infringing three patents held by Verizon, and not guilty of infringing two other patents. The jury ordered Vonage to pay fifty-eight million dollars, and a royalty rate of 5.5% of every sale to a Vonage customer, back to Verizon. Vonage said it would appeal the jury verdict.
The three infringed patents cover: (1) Internet to phone-system connection technology, (2) phone features such as voice-mail and call-waiting, and (3) wireless to Internet phone calls.
The patents in question: US patent 6430275, US patent 6137869, US patent 6104711, US patent 6282574, US patent 6298062, US patent 6128304, US patent 6359880.
On April 3, 2007, Vonage and VOIP, Inc. reached an agreement to allow Vonage to use VOIP, Inc's sector of Internet to continue uninterrupted service, and addresses two of three Verizon patent infringements. The appeal ruling concerning an injunction prohibiting Vonage from using Verizon technology is still pending.
On April 6, a judge issued an injunction that would bar Vonage from signing up new customers, but did not grant the 120-day stay Vonage requested.[11]. This injunction is delayed until April 12, to allow Vonage time to submit an appeal. Later on April 6, a federal appeals court granted Vonage a temporary stay of the earlier lower court order[12]." - yacks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14You fail to mention that us consumers lose too because we will lose a competitor as well. Competition is good in a sense that it either decreases prices or increases service..
- mtekk, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18All we need to do is invalidate the patent by either finding prior works, or showing that it is too broad to be feasibly acceptable. Both *should* be fairly easy.
- mcnasby, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15It's actually really ashame, but your comment is 100% accurate. I'm an advertising major at my university and decided to take a business minor half way though. All I can say is that it's absolutely horrible what they teach in business school now in days. I've heard stories about how they focused on teaching innovation through product development in the 70s and 80s, but no longer is the focus on the product. It's on the dollar - that's it. It's about "maximizing revenue" or "maximizing efficiency." I don't get it... these are seemingly intelligent people, doctors, professionals - all teaching impressionable students how to run an industry into the ground. You can only maximize for so long for god sakes. Business in America is taking a turn for the worst. So now instead of innovating, they are continuing to push push push - maximize revenue through litigation. Verizon should be proud of themselves for doing what 21st century business does best. I'd love to hear from some stick-in-his-ass business student telling me I'm wrong. There's no denying that this story is just a testament to the future of business.
- OpenFuture, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Damn I sure hope it doesn't end up that way.
- mobbo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Vonage is good... but the best thing is that my money is not going to AT&T, Verizon, or a Bell.
- etnu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Kiss voip goodbye? Huh? You do realize that virtually all telecommunications are on a packet-switched network once they get more than a mile or so outside the home, right?
Kiss FREE or CHEAP voip goodbye, but voip is certainly here to stay. - eth3l, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13I will be pissed if Vonage shuts. I cannot stand Skype. My wife also will not like the switch.
Verizon can kiss my white zitty ass. - bierce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Will the PTO ever get a clue? Giving out bogus patents only harms consumers.
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Once again our carefully crafted system of laws shows how any system can be brought down with idiots and crooks in charge. I don't mean Bush, I mean corporate America and the government they pay for.
- Loonacy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Dree is right, stay far away from ACN.
- Raidenwolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Question patent # 1 validity
Vonage maintains that it does not violate any of the patents in question. It also contends they are invalid, in part because the company claims inventions by Net phone engineers and other companies, such as Net2Phone and VocalTec, predate the mid-1990s Verizon patents.
What is bogus to me is that the patents 2 through 7 are a natural course of giving VOIP service, some are even blatantly just standard operating procedures for any company with any product like patent # 4 fraud protection (what company that delivers service not implement fraud protection) or # 5 what company would not improve their core service to hold and gain their customer base ?
As noted above these are the infringed patents. 1. calls between VoIP users and people using phones on the traditional public switched network (Done by cisco back in 2001 if not earlier I think SIP was 1999), 2. authenticating VoIP callers (well yeah if you are using something other than a local call center You would have to do this otherwise everyone could tap into your system), 3. validating VoIP callers' accounts (Same as last) , 4. fraud protection (Hmmm no one should ever use fraud protection but first on to say shotgun) , 5. providing enhanced features (Yes shotgun again I want all my customers to have ***** I have not thought of yet) , 6. using Wi-Fi handsets with VoIP services ( Yes someday even my cats flea collar will be wi-fi enabled allowing it to self order a replacement) and 7. monitoring VoIP caller usage (Once again why would anyone want to keep track of it's customers usage, maybe to show them how much they saved etc...)
Out of all these patents I can only see no 1 being valid, and I doubt they truly own it, Or are they only owners of voip service that works with real world lines.
WTF are the people giving out patents smoking.
This is not the same as a patent on a paper clip and then making a patent on a paper clip with serrated edges to grip better. This is a patent on I am going to put paper clips in a box to sell. This a patent on I will label some boxes 100 count.
I'M DONE BLOWING MY FUSE (Wait someone might have the patent on blowing fuses when systems get overloaded, pweease don't sue me Johnny be a good wittle boy)
I really hate patent troll companies. Damn now I need to hunt some feel good story so I can go to sleep. - superpixel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I've been boycotting Verizon ever since GTE Wireless disappeared. Verizon's disabling of Bluetooth is perhaps one of the best examples of their arrogance and stupidity. Sure, granny will pay $2.99 to pull pics off her $99 phone-- but not me.
- osbjmg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10argoff - What are you going do do? It doesn't work like that for these types of products - you can cancel your phone maybe?
- ontheheap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I agree that the "woohoo" commercials are awful, but I've been using Vonage for a few months now and I'm pretty happy with it. The call quality is fine and it doesn't interfere with normal web surfing. All of the features that comes with my $29.00 /month bill would cost me something like $45.00 from Verizon. Plus Vonage passes the "spouse test" in that it gets my Wifes approval because it doesn't require any, as she puts it, "geeking out" in order to use it. I mean, if I don't tell people that come over my home that my phone is VoIP, they have no idea. Anyway, I certainly hope Vonage is able to sort this out.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10I like Ice Cream.
- tendonut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Verizon does have a VoIP service called VoiceWing. They never advertise it though..I suppose it is not as profitable as standard copper land lines. But now that they basically have taken out their only real competitor, they can either push VoiceWing into non-existence, or jack the price up to be nearly the same as their regular phone lines. Don't you love monopolies?
- zdiggler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Stupid Post BTW.. Blog site to Another Blog site.
Here is the Link to the real deal.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2007-04-15-vonage-usat_N.htm - OWNAGETIME, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I think this will increase their popularity especially if it gets more popular in the news. Everyone rooting for the underdog if they manage to accomplish what they were doing without infringing on Verizon's patents then they will surely get more customers just to support the underdog.
- burke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8If Verizon were to actually come out with a service to rival Vonage, and move into the VOIP realm, I'd be a little disappointed, but I'd definitely accept it. As it is, what they're doing is saying: "Hey Vonage: Quit that stupid VOIP thing. We've got phones covered our copper wire here. Nobody wants phones on the internet, silly." Essentially, they're killing VOIP as a whole.
I have no problem with Vonage disappearing, but this will kill VOIP. - zdiggler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I hated Verizon for charging me too much for local toll calls because I don't have their LD plan I was using Skype for LD then with Mplat box. If I buy LD plan from thenm Local Toll become free but I'll still end up in ~$65/mon without CID/CW or CIDonHold etc.
So I switched to Vonage and now I hates Verizon even more!
Vonage is the best phone company I ever used. One low flat rate and call all you want when you want no problems. It does not I live far away form my parents they don't have LD plan so I have a virtual number in their local area so they can call me for free.
One other thing good about Vonage is Instance Useage data is up my account website! They can dig up records from day one which was very useful for me when I lost phone number of someone.
911 work great too. I called for Neighbor kids who got stuck on the roof (stupid kids) and cops and Firetrucks showed up at right place.
Probably gotta go with Comcast Voip if it all end. I'm going to ride Vonage until the end. I hope they come up with something.
As for ads they're much better the Apple ones (Thank god I don't see them anymore on TV) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9People who ACTUALLY know what they are talking about disagree with you.
- cdgod, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7@apollydon01 LOL... where else are they going to fight? In a CEO vs CEO Gladiator-Spartan-style battle to the death?
Verizon sucks cuz they are fighting with an overly broad patent that only stops fair market competition and innovation... and adds ZERO value to the economy. - lebaige, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Take a look at the patents in question in this case. Verizon can do the same thing to virtually any VOIP provider on the market. This is a BAD BAD thing, no matter how you feel about Vonage specifically.
- rworne, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6The only people that should be worried right now are those that paid in advance for a year's service - based on the promotion they ran in... March?
I guess I am one of the lucky ones who get very good service from Vonage. I'm on the $15.XX/mo plan and it really does save me approx $30+/mo after long distance is put in the mix. The wife manages to rack up $10-15/mo in LD charges to Japan, and that's at $0.06/minute. I've had the service for two years now, and it's saved me a ton of cash.
Now I'm running a Netgear standalone Skype phone (SPH-200D) as a backup in case the Vonage network suddenly goes dark. Skype gives me about equal voice quality and better prices, but they are hindered by lack of proper caller-ID and that I cannot hook up an answering machine or regular phone like I can with Vonage. - EvilCamel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5FWIW, I love my SunRocket service. Has all the bells and whistles that Vonage did (online logs, emailed VM messages, blocking numbers online, having your phone ring 8 different places, call hunting, etc.
Hope they aren't next.
Too bad for the open marketplace. I see this as bad for the consumer... - tmatyt95, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I do not think so. The problem is, with a software patent, the company who owns it get to control everything in that field. This closes the field off to competition and ultimately is a bad thing for not just the consumer but also the technology that the patent is covering as without the competition, there is no real urge to find new creative uses using it.
- Kazimieras, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6How about do the obvious and just move the servers and primary traffic outside the US, the courts can't follow you there.
- burke, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Yes. It is. Have you not noticed that half of the comments on Digg are completely dedicated to criticizing and/or trolling the other half?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Are you ***** kidding me? A monopoly? How about all the CABLE companies offering it? Verizon is not even clsoe to a monopoly in VoiP, even with this ruling.
- HardBap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why is everyone putting the Vonage "woohoo" commecial down without even a mention about how irritating the Verizon "Can you hear me now" guy is?
I agree the Vonage commecial is a bit stupid, but least Vonage is trying...the Verizon dude in the glasses is just lame. - ichbinladen, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Don't worry Vonage! Ron Paul will save you! Right Digg? RIGHT?!?!
- WraithFX, on 10/12/2007, -25/+28@Cyre
Agreed!! Although I hate patent trolls.. I really hate bad commercials :) - LVDave, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10..Cuz their the phone company and they don't have to anything???
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