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October 7, 2004
Web 2.0 VOIP panel
Watching the VOIP panel at Web 2.0. Vonage, AT&T, Covad
Vonage CEO was immediately on the defensive having to defend their recent price reduction in reaction to AT&T. He suggested that they already had it in the pipeline as a part of "simplification" of their plans and only moved up their announcement. But he didn't really address the price war topic. He suggested that they will have lots of features to support price (followme phone numbers, easy install, etc.). I don't believe it.
AT&T says they understand price wars. They understand how to make EBITDA during a price war. A not so subtle dig at Vonage not being there yet. Also noted that they use SIP not VOIP, "Services over IP". AT&T will be the leader in delivering Services over IP, that includes many data services, voice services, etc. Their vision is much greater than just phone over IP. They haven't had a good history of execution (can you say ATTWS), but this may be strategic enough that they get it right. All AT&T comments were basically "we can do this, believe me". It sounded quite desparate. Pointing to alot of PAST AT&T inventions (Linux, telco switches, etc.) he tried to convince the audience that "AT&T has the key components to deliver the new services". Yea right. But you have screwed up more assets than any company in history. They divested themselves of many of the assets that may be valuable (cable, Wireless, local lines, Lucent, etc.) Vonage pointed this out. Gesse this is almost as scathing as the Cheney/Edwards debate!
Covad guy said "we are just an integrator". We don't compete with anybody. We focus on small to medium business. I don't believe it. They are struggling. No-one has ever made alot of money scaling an integration truck rolling business. Good luck. Roadkil.
Posted by Martin at October 7, 2004 9:59 AM
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