 bencPremium
join:2007-06-17
Glen Carbon, IL
 ·Charter
| reply to supergirl
Re: Vonage Commits to Refinance said by supergirl:I give them about a year before they file bankruptcy. Their churn rate is horrible. Cable VOIP/Digital Voice/Cellphones with Unlimited Calling is going to kill them. Triple play will become more of a deal. If caps are truly imposed with overage charges, Vonage is over anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if Vonage does file for bankruptcy at some point. Then again people have been saying that for years I think. so you never know.
Unlimited Mobile Phone Plans? Perhaps. There's a $50 price premium between unlimited mobile plans and unlimited POTS, prior to taxes and fees ($100 vs. $50). The cost difference between unlimited mobile and unlimited VOIP is even larger. Since it's easier to share POTS and VOIP the cost difference is even larger.
Caps? Oh please. And for the record, I don't agree with caps at all. However, what VOIP uses is actually quite small. Using G.711 ulaw, the bulkiest VOIP codec, 1GB data = just over 1,609 minutes.
Suppose, as a hypothetical example:
There's a family of four blabbermouths. They each talk three hours a day, and this doesn't include work or mobile phone usage. That's 720 minutes per day, or about 21,916 minutes per month. Using G.711 ulaw, that's about 13.2 GB. On Comcast's 250GB cap, there's still lots of room left. They'd be at a far greater risk of using up that cap for other things.
In real life, I doubt anyone actually talks three hours a day on the phone outside work. If there's anyone who does, they are quite rare.
So, while I disagree with caps, to say that caps will make VOIP hurt is nonsensical. The only way caps will hurt VOIP is if people don't put it all into perspective. |
