Yet Another Me Too VoIP Provider Claims They're Different

from the yeah,-okay,-sure dept

Om Malik has noticed that there's yet another "me too" VoIP player on the block, and can't figure out what makes them different -- even as they claim they're somehow different than the fifty or so competitors they face. Om notes that the company has received funding from Nokia Venture Partners, and wonders why Nokia would invest in a VoIP player that might undercut their mobile business, but this seems smart to me. If someone is going to undercut your business, it might as well be yourself. Nokia is just hedging their bets. What caught my eye, however, is that this particular company was founded by the same team who worked at MCI and came up with their TheNeighborhood plan. TheNeighborhood was one of the first "flat rate" plans for local and long distance. What's amusing, though, is that part of the advertising for this new VoIP company says: "We recognize the mounting frustration that consumers have with escalating fees, add-on surcharges and taxes that turn an advertised $49.99 price into a $65 monthly phone bill." That's funny, because I am a subscriber to TheNeighborhood plan, which still runs a list price of $49.99 and my last bill was (oh, look at that!) right about $65. So, the reason they know of the frustration is because they created it.

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