VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com

December 8, 2006

VoIP subscribers grew 18 percent in third quarter to 8.2 million. VoIP subscribers have doubled from last year. VoIP revenues for the second quarter were up about two and a half times -- $732 million across the United States, compared with a year-ago level of $298 million.

 

Vonage remained the biggest provider with 1.95 million subscribers, followed again by Time Warner Inc.'s cable TV business at 1.64 million. But Comcast Corp. moved into third place with 1.35 million, surpassing Cablevision Systems Corp.'s 1.10 million.

 

TeleGeography predicted the market would grow by roughly 1.5 million subscribers in the fourth quarter to end the year with 9.7 million, or about 8.7 percent of the nation's households. Revenues are expected to approach $2.6 billion for the year or more than 2.5 times the 2005 total of just over $1 billion.

 

One wonders what the leading position Vonage has in terms of market share is worth. The stock still trades under $7. I hope to see a triple play report similar to this one soon.

December 8, 2006

HP seems to have gotten through the pretexting scandal unscathed -- paying $14.5 million to settle a civil claim revolving around the issue. HP shares have actually gained around 9 percent since the probe was disclosed in a regulatory filing, but fell 28 cents to $39.86 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

 

"It looks like they got off pretty easy, and that this is actually going to be a good thing for HP," said Roger Kay, who follows the company as president of market research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates. "It looks like they're in control of their destiny and have put at least some of this behind them."

 

The vast majority of the settlement -- $13.5 million -- will fund state and local investigations into privacy rights and intellectual property violations, according to the lawsuit and settlement filed simultaneously in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

 

Apparently HP has been extremely cooperative and this issue seems to be largely behind the company.

 

HP CEO Mark Hurd said in a statement that the company is "committed to ensuring that HP regains its standing as a global leader in corporate ethics and responsibility." The agreement did not include a finding of liability against HP.

 

From my perspective the low fine amount seems like a minimal deterrent against this sort of behavior in the future. We may be seeing more pretexting cases soon.

December 8, 2006

Since I am not driving I get a chance to catch up on e-mail and blog a bit. I have a few unfinished articles I may get to finish on this trip. Apparently McDonalds on I95 has a brand new look by the way. There is much more red/orange/yellow. Other than that it is cold -- freezing here in CT. It was about 19 degrees in Stratford. I saw a few flurries a while back but skies are more blue as we enter Milford.

December 8, 2006

Today I head up to northern New England. The big debate is whether to take my car which has no snow tires. I am in the mood to drive at this point and am hardly very around to drive my car. I miss it. The car is currently equipped with sports tires. I know from painful experience these things do not work in the snow. I need to get snow tires – hopefully this weekend. If I do drive and it does snow I promise to have some great crash pictures for you by tomorrow. Cross your fingers.