Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | Quick precedents Verizon is trying to get some quick precedents regarding their patents set before going after Comcast's and Time Warner Cable's phone services. |
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| Isn't Time Warner somewhat protected, however, by Sprint's VoIP patent portfolio? That would cover others as well. |
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Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | Maybe, but the more court wins and settlements Verizon gets the stronger their patent claims become. |
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JohnAPremium
join:2003-09-16
Pittsburgh, PA | The precedents, all the way through a full set of appeals, are set. All the other providers of voip sat on their hands, as if Verizon was just mad at Vonage, rather than rally around them for the sake of the technology. Now they're all on VZ, S, and T's list, and undoing the precedents looks near impossible.
The patents are written in such a way, that everyone that terminates a voip call to VZ (landline) or S (wireless) violates them. T's patent is for a packet phone system, so they can sue just about anyone today. The irony of all of this is that the old T (pre-SBC merger) is responsible for cable companies getting into the phone business (PSTN) in the first place, while they were in the cable business.
A couple more court wins will set the precedents in stone, and make it not worthwhile to defend against them, unless the telcos actually try to make injunctions stick, rather than license the IP.
(aside) I expect them to eventually take a run at Neutral Tandem, a recent IPO that's turned making these connections into a service, to invalidate at least the voip portion of what they do. |
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fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | said by JohnA:The irony of all of this is that the old T (pre-SBC merger) is responsible for cable companies getting into the phone business (PSTN) in the first place, while they were in the cable business. No, AT&T wasn't responsible as you stated. Comcast, MediaOne, TCI, and others were getting into Telephone before AT&T Broadband purchased MediaOne. (It was at that point where AT&T Broadband was pushing telephony in the systems they purchased in some areas) I can point you to cable systems in the bay area that were serving telephone back in 1996, well before AT&T Broadband was formed. |
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Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | reply to JohnA
said by JohnA:A couple more court wins will set the precedents in stone, and make it not worthwhile to defend against them, unless the telcos actually try to make injunctions stick, rather than license the IP. Completely agree and think that Verizon is after cash here rather than stopping VOIP. |
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| I think it may be more than the cash. On the Time Warner Cable earnings conference call this week, they mentioned that Albany market continued to be one of (the?) fastest growing market in their systems with nearly 30% penetration of homes passed. We'll hear more from Cablevision in a few weeks, but my guess is they are holding their own on residential (32-35% penetration of homes passed), and their small business efforts are also taking off. They cannot beat them with DSL (re: Embarq had more DSL adds than Verizon), and FiOS successful but confined (and, perhaps not affordable to the masses). In short, VZ (wireline) in it for survival and their network economics collapse without less competition. |
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