TKO for Vonage?, ATandT sues Vonage

Could this be a TKO for Vonage?

I am not saying that they in fact have been knocked down by Sprint and Verizon, but will they last because of these jealous, whinny incumbents? Despite Vonage getting hit twice they have managed to survive, with dignity I must say. Any other VoIP Provider would have crumpled under the gripping hands of the major Telcos. So why is AT&T jumpoing on the "LETS GET VONAGE" Band-wagon?

One Blogger wrote. "The obvious explanation is that AT&T is worried about losing control of its intellectual property. If a business doesn't defend its property from even the most minor misuse, the theory goes, it might lose its right to defend it. It's not unlike protecting a trademark by pouncing on every instance of improper or generic use. Anything less could be a betrayal of management's responsibility to shareholders." - I completely agree but when did telephone companies begin to forget about what Communications is all about. Is it not about the consumer, IT IS!! Every Incumbent Telco has one way or another, taken advantage of their power, where are we Mexico? And all this about intellectual property, it is VoIP. Have you read some of these patents, they are bullshit. They are so confusing so that they don't make any sense, they ILECS don't even understand them.

If it is about Businesses trying to protect their intellectual property, however, one might expect ATandT to also pursue its patent rights with every small VoIP provider in the world. It's hard to believe that all providers would be free of at least some such infringements; most have fewer engineering resources than Vonage and undoubtedly less ability to develop their own technical planning and configurations.

Of course, ATandT might even now be pursuing such small VoIP providers behind the scenes. The company had reportedly negotiated with Vonage for two years before filing suit, but the first news of this broke in mid-October 2007, when ATandT said that it had no choice but to sue because the talks were going nowhere. So the company may be negotiating with smaller providers and may conceivably have already settled with some of them. Damn BULLIES!

TeleGeography analyst Paul Brodsky finds the timing of the suit "suspicious." It came shortly after Vonage settled with Sprint for $80 million and after an appeals court sent one of the verdicts in Verizon's suit against Vonage back to a lower court for reconsideration, while affirming two others. Whatever the official reason, the timing was certainly bad for Vonage. "I think there was a little optimism that they may have finally cleared themselves of some of these patent issues," Brodsky said. "Then ATandT comes along and kicks sand in their face again."

Wake up and smell the coffee, obviously ATandT has timed this dangerously for Vonage, right after going up against Verizon and Sprint. Again this is perfectly demonstrating that Dinosaur phone companies are more concerned with public image, throwing their weight around and money, not the comsumer. Honestly, does Vonage pose that big of a threat to ATandT?

Your thoughts?