VoIP Startups to Watch: SunRocket, ViaTalk, BlueNote Networks, and more...

[mandy]

If you’ve only heard about Vonage and Skype when it comes to VoIP, you’ve only scratched the surface. Dozens of startup companies from the U.S., Canada and Europe are bringing out innovative IP telephony products – from hooking up your cell phone, to the company phone system (free minutes!), to phones that switch from cellular signals to WiFi instantly. In fact, some of these startups are are over 12 to 18 months old and on the verge of being mature businesses. Here are our picks for the Top 25 new VoIP companies set to change the way we all work and do business… and the products are pretty cool, too...

full article: http://www.voip-news.com/feature/25-most...ps-021207/

[Kristijntje]

Update on SunRocket:

Sunrocket, one of the many VoIP service providers that has been suffering as a result of an all-out voice assault by the cable companies is rumored to have hit a major airpocket today. Our sources say that the company laid off about 40 of its employees, including some C-Level executives. While the company isn’t exactly out of business, things are pretty dicey here...

The VoIP service provider claims that it has 200,000 subscribers...

full article: http://gigaom.com/2007/06/29/sunsets-ove...s-rumored/

[mandy]

Update: SunRocket shuts its doors.

The sudden closure of VoIP service provider SunRocket left paying customers without phone service, but the company's downfall also illustrates the difficulty even large firms have competing in the space. With competition from both cable and telcos, upstarts such as Vonage have their work cut out for them...

SunRocket, which launched service in late 2004, shut down on July 16 without warning its 200,000 or so customers -- marking the first failure of a prominent Internet phone company in a business that was already looking shaky. While the technology behind Web calling, known as Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, continues to thrive and reshape the telecommunications industry, SunRocket's crash adds doubt to the question of whether a business can survive by VoIP alone.

"I'd assume that sooner or later the same thing will happen to Vonage," says Alan Breznick, a senior analyst at Heavy Reading, an industry consulting firm...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/B97v4x53...urch.xhtml

Thousands of SunRocket subscribers found their phone lines disconnected this week after the start-up Internet-phone service provider abruptly shut its doors Monday...

Packet8, the third-largest independent Internet-phone service provider with 181,000 customers, said yesterday that it entered an agreement with SunRocket's liquidator, Sherwood Partners of Palo Alto, Calif., to accept SunRocket subscribers. Customers can transfer their phone service at no charge and will receive one month free.

Customers should be able to keep their phone numbers, although it may take two or three days to get their phones up and running, said Huw Rees, vice president of sales and marketing for Packet8, also known as 8x8. Packet8 will not honor prepaid SunRocket contracts...

full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...02466.html

[rose]

With competition from both cable and telcos, upstarts such as Vonage have their work cut out for them...

The upstarts don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of winning 

[amy]

I'm glad I picked a different VoIP company. 

[jrs0000]

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