cbrain
join:2000-05-21
Silver Spring, MD
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| Deal Propels SunRocket to Mainstream
Firm to Provide Internet Service for GE Phones
»www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co···748.html
By Kim Hart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 20, 2006; Page D01
SunRocket Inc., an Internet phone upstart from Vienna, has struck a joint marketing deal with electronics giant Thomson Inc. to roll out GE-branded cordless phones capable of making calls over the Internet.
The deal announced Friday is an important one for the two-year-old SunRocket, which will provide the Internet service for the new phones.
Providers of Internet phone service, such as Vonage, SunRocket and 8x8, have been steadily attracting customers with unlimited calling plans and lower rates than traditional telephone service. But to break out, they must tap the mainstream market. All three have been trying to do that by partnering with telephone manufacturers to boost their brands' name recognition and credibility.
"It's exciting to work with a company that has such a major presence in landline phones," said Lisa Hook, SunRocket's chief executive. "The GE brand is iconic. It's like the really nerdy girl being picked to dance by the quarterback."
Other providers are taking the same approach. Vonage, the largest Internet-calling service provider, has partnered with VTech Holdings Ltd. to produce Internet-compatible telephones. Similarly, 8x8 has entered an agreement with Uniden America Corp.
The fact that major telephone manufacturers have invested in enabling handsets with Internet-calling devices is a sign of their confidence in the technology, said William Stofega, an Internet-calling analyst for market research firm IDC.
"Early adopters and technology geeks are already using it," he said. "The challenge is to get it out in the mainstream. Customers want it to work, and they want it to be easy to use."
Until recently, customers making calls over the Internet had to plug standard phones into special adaptors that connected to high-speed Internet lines. By embedding the technology directly into the telephone, providers and manufacturers are hoping to simplify the transition from traditional phones to the new technology.
"Over the next few years, this will certainly be the fastest-growing type of voice communications for residents," predicted Tom Bratton, vice president for marketing and sales for Thomson. "It will be driven by cheap voice but also by adding other features you can't get on regular landlines."
Some of those new features, such as internal address books and text messaging, will start to appear in the next year, although a formal timeline is not yet in place, Hook said.
Since its founding in 2004, SunRocket has grown rapidly, becoming one of the major players in the residential Internet phone market. In the past year, the company has more than tripled its subscriber base, which is now at about 170,000, and it has received a total of $80 million in venture capital funding. SunRocket's service costs about $200 a year for unlimited local and long-distance calling and up to 100 free international minutes every month.
Over 8.2 million U.S. households subscribed to Internet phone services at the end of September, up from 3.5 million at the same time last year, according to TeleGeography Research. About 38 percent of the subscribers get their service from stand-alone providers like SunRocket and Vonage.
The number of residential subscribers is expected to reach about 19.3 million by 2008, according to IDC's projections.
Internet calling "is still very young," Hook said. "It's great validation for the technology and its potential growth when such big companies want to play in a branded way."
»www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co···748.html |
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T40_Laptop
join:2005-06-26
Fremont, CA | Good news... thanks for posting...
I believe Sunrocket is on the right track...
T40 |
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B
Premium,MVM
join:2000-10-28
| reply to cbrain
said by cbrain  :"It's exciting to work with a company that has such a major presence in landline phones," said Lisa Hook, SunRocket's chief executive. "The GE brand is iconic. It's like the really nerdy girl being picked to dance by the quarterback." Ugh. My provider's CEO is an idiot.
Her second quote, towards the end, is even worse.
AOL (whence she comes) breeds nothing good.
-- B
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In a realm outside causality and function |
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koam
Pink Pecker
Premium
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle
clubs:
edit:
November 21st, @08:24AM
| who put that genius in charge? maybe brain surgery wasn't working out for her. |
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ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
clubs: | reply to cbrain
Are they saying they are going to make an integrated adapter with the cordless phones? I thought they made one already. |
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koam
Pink Pecker
Premium
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle
clubs:
 ·Shoreham Telephone
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| The Vonage V-Tech product:
»www.geek.com/hwswrev/conel/vonag···ndex.htm
--
Satan is your pastor
»Ted Haggard was FIRED by church - he did not resign |
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christcorp
Premium
join:2001-05-21
Cheyenne, WY
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·VOIPo
| reply to cbrain
QUOTE: "It's exciting to work with a company that has such a major presence in landline phones," said Lisa Hook, SunRocket's chief executive. "The GE brand is iconic. It's like the really nerdy girl being picked to dance by the quarterback."
What???? So, does that mean GE is the "Quarterback" of the telephone equipment world? I doubt it. Or, is she saying that SunRocket is the unpopular, nerdy, unliked girl; hence the bastard child of voip providers? Either way, Lisa Hook is a moron. It's people like her that run companies into the ground. That's right, she did once before, didn't she? |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY | Re: Deal Propels SunRocket to Mainstream
'extraodinary sums of money' - that gets my vote as quote of the day.
-Brendan |
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ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
clubs:
moderated:
November 21st, @08:27PM
| reply to AOL Executive
said by anon:
-
Hmmm....should we take bets as to whom this could be?  |
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FyreWurx
join:2003-02-16
Royal Oak, MI | reply to VTBrendan
Had I any idea that Sunrocket possessed leaders of such great emminence or that Sunrocket was to inherit extraordinary sums of money, I might have been tempted to continue my service. |
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B
Premium,MVM
join:2000-10-28
| reply to cbrain
The really nerdy girl.
»www.executivebiz.com/newsletter-···ho=lhook
»www.sunrocket.com/about/mediaroo···iz_0525/
Lisa Hook: I built five businesses in four years at AOL. And prior to that I was a partner at a private equity firm focused on media and telecommunications. My entire background is about starting businesses from scratch or taking over when they're young and building them to scale and then running them into the ground in the mass market.
Sigh.
-- B
--
In a realm outside causality and function |
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Nate425
Premium
join:2005-02-03
Charlottesville, VA
clubs: | Ok, now THAT"s funny  |
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