VoIP Activity

Here is a list of companies in America who provide VoIP services:

Vonage Holdings Inc.
Headquarters: Edison, N.J.
Revenue: Not available because it's privately held
VoIP service: Business and residential

The earliest leader in VoIP seems to be Vonage. It had about 500,000 customers nationwide in January, and went on to double its size in the second half of 2004. Vonage began by offering its service in Austin two years ago, long before major companies started their VoIP services. A little more than 5 percent of its customers, 21,000 lines, are in Texas. This five-year-old company leases its network capacity from other communications companies in order to handle its calls. Vonage has found a method by which it can push customer growth: cut prices. Its unlimited call plan for local and long-distance calls in the United States and Canada was cut down to $24.99 last year, down by $15 from 2003. The company also has a consumer plan for $14.99 a month but it limits calling to 500 minutes.

The monthly services include voice mail, caller ID, call transfer, call waiting, repeat dialing, call forwarding, Web-based account management and lower international calling rates. But customers must have a broadband Internet connection to use the service.

SBC Communications Inc.
Headquarters: San Antonio
Revenue: $40.8 billion
VoIP service: Business, future residential

SBC originally had plans to introduce a consumer VoIP service this month, but these plans have been slightly delayed due to the company's proposed acquisition of AT&T Corp. The company is considering whether or not to make its service resemble AT&T's CallVantage consumer VoIP offering, which has been available from 2004.

SBC has been offering VoIP to corporate clients for several years now, and they recently converted the University of Notre Dame to the technology. On the consumer side, they already have a ready market of more than 5 million broadband Internet customers.

VoIP is only one part of SBC's Project Lightspeed program. This program will bring the company's fiber-optic network to about half of its customers in 13 states. The Lightspeed network is estimated to reach 19 million customers within a span of three years. The network allows SBC to deliver digital voice, high-speed Internet access and interactive video programming.

PointOne Inc.
Headquarters: Austin
Revenue: Not disclosed because it's privately held
VoIP Service: business and residential

Though a little-known company, PointOne Inc. is one of the pioneers of the VoIP world. It started out by offering low-cost phone service over its national data network in 1998 and went on to do a lot of business with other long-distance companies who wanted to escape access fees associated with using local phone companies' networks. That wholesale business is gradually going away since major long-distance companies, such as AT&T, have started creating their own VoIP networks.

PointOne came out of bankruptcy reorganization in 2004 with some debt and now claims to operate profitably, though it refuses to disclose its finances. However, PointOne does say that it handles about 1 billion minutes of voice and data communications per month across its network, which covers three-quarters of the United States, most of Canada and even some parts of England, Germany and Mexico.

The company is planning to offer retail phone service in the Austin area later this year. PointOne has deals with other companies to provide auxiliary services over its network, including operator assistance and the routing of 911 calls.

Time Warner Cable
Headquarters: Stamford, Conn.
Revenue: $8.5 billion
VoIP service: aimed primarily at residential customers

Time Warner Cable states that its Digital Phone service has more than 50,000 new customers in Texas since it was introduced last summer. The service was originally aimed at residential customers of Time Warner's Road Runner high-speed Internet access service. The company claims that it soon will begin pitching the service to people who aren't Road Runner customers, although the service still depends on Time Warner's cable-modem network to function.

Time Warner offers unlimited long-distance calls within the United States to customers thanks to its alliance with Sprint. The service costs $39.95 a month. This includes calling features such as caller ID, call waiting, call waiting ID and call forwarding. Voice-mail service is also available for an extra $3.95 a month.

VoIP translates to two things for cable providers: more money to deliver a new service over its network and better customer retention since the cable company delivers more than one service to customers.

Time Warner Telecom Inc.
Headquarters: Littleton, Colo.
Revenue: $653 million
VoIP service: business only

Time Warner Telecom is not the same as the cable provider. In the month of February 2005, it launched its business-class VoIP service in 21 markets, including Austin. The VoIP service functions on what the company calls its metro Ethernet platform.

Businesses using the service can set up phone and data links between multiple locations as though they were part of the same local computer network. That gives greater flexibility and cost savings for businesses with multiple locations.

Time Warner has already spent more than $72 million in Austin since the year 1997, when building a 500-mile fiber-optic network to connect more than 200 commercial buildings. Austin is one of the 44 major metropolitan markets that the company serves.

The company originally began as a branch of Time Warner Cable but then became separate in 1998. Time Warner Inc. still holds a minority interest in the telecommunications company, which had a public stock offering in 1998.