Verizon Voicewing users tell us that Verizon is sending them letters informing them that the company is officially ending the Voicewing service. "We regret to inform you that effective March 31, 2009, Verizon will no longer offer VoiceWing," starts the letter sent out to VoiceWing subcribers dated Jan 16, 2009. "At that time all VoiceWing service will be terminated." As we've been exploring, Verizon is working on a new VoIP product called FiOS Digital Voice, and we assume will launch their own BYOB service (for non-FiOS customers) as well.

Voicewing was simply a re-branded version of VoIP service offered by Delta Three. While users are still able to use the service, Verizon stopped marketing Voicewing some time ago.

The cable companies recently filed complaints with the FCC about Verizon’s “retention-marketing” efforts. Basically, when a customer would switch from Verizon to the cable company’s service, the cable provider would send a portability request to Verizon and Verizon would use that as an excuse to market directly to that customer and win them back. This takes business away from the cable guys who insist that the practice is a violation of FCC rules. However, the FCC has decided that Verizon can continue the practice. The commission concedes that the rules on the issue aren’t exactly clear but they’re going to go with Verizon’s interpretation for now; it’s been suggested that the FCC should look into clarifying the rules in order to avoid future problems.

Last year Verizon won millions of dollars in a slew of patent infringement lawsuits against Vonage. Last month Verizon filed lawsuits of a similar nature against Cox Communications.

Verizon has been pushing for deregulation along the eastern seaboard, claiming that the area is now competitive and they should be allowed to raise rates. The FCC denied these requests in the past but Verizon is now gaining some ground in Virginia.

Cox Communications is facing a patent infringement lawsuit by Verizon which claims that the cable company has violated eight of their VoIP technology patents. Four of those patents are the same ones which were being used by Vonage until Verizon won $120 million in a similar lawsuit against the company. Some fear that the win could have set a trend for Verizon to continue going after other companies all throughout the year. The industry is unsure as to why Cox is the sole focus of this particular lawsuit since the same technology is being used by other cable operators.

Back in March, a federal jury ruled that Vonage infringed on three of Verizon's patents, and said the company had to pay $58 million in damages, as well as a 5.5% royalty rate on each Vonage customer. Today, an appeals court upheld the ruling on two of the patents, but remanded the ruling on the 880 patent and vacated the award.