Friday, December 10, 2004

SunRocket's Simple VoIP

Telephony Magazine interviews the folks over at SunRocket, Paul Erickson CEO and Rob Mainor COO. They've got an interesting take on the whole consumer VoIP market -- simplifying it to the extreme, akin to AOL's approach to dial-up Internet service. The rise of AOL as the dominant consumer ISP proved that consumers don't always choose service providers based on technical prowess or reviews. Will the Dulles corridor see another AOL campus in the near future?
Telephony Executive Editor Vince Vittore examines SunRocket's concept of taking the technology out of VoIP--the company even calls the customer device a "Gizmo"--and marketing based purely on the simplicity of the end service.
Dial-up ISPs were initially geographically restrained in their market footprint by the need for actual local phone numbers & presences, VoIP players are not. I wonder if that makes a big enough difference in the end?
Also, according to a recent report from VoIPAction, there are now more than 400 voice-over-IP service providers in the North American market. That's going to create a lot noise...granted the market is huge, but what are the differentiators? I hope SunRocket's right, as I'm sure Nokia Venture Partners and Anthem Capital do as well.

posted by Charles @ Friday, December 10, 2004