I received this e-mail today regarding my recent CallVantage article where I was confused about why AT&T would lower their CallVantage prices.

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FYI, I was listening to a con-call being given by a senior IT exec at AT&T …. he basically said there was no future for callvantage ….. there’s no money in it ….. they would probably provide a VOIP service for lightspeed but as far as a general "bring your own broadband" offering there’s no future in it.

Now is he saying it because there really is no money in it? I tend to agree with you that folks who want quality would pay extra for the AT&T brand.

Or … is the handwriting on the wall …. will net providers .. like AT&T … start blocking competitors VOIP ….. so they figure if they’re going to do it they can’t expect anyone to let theirs go through ……

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Although I don’t have the benefit of listening to this conference call, I must admit it is difficult for VoIP providers to make money today and that is because there is so much competition and so many have decided that competing on price makes the most sense.

Vonage the industry leader in fact has been a major proponent of price competition and many others have followed suit. By the way, I am probably one of the few who believes that Vonage can make a good amount of profits due to the sheer volume of customers they have – they just need to cut back on marketing a bit.

AT&T for its part never really competed wholeheartedly in the consumer VoIP services space. CallVantage was a distant second to Vonage from the start and remains a virtually unknown brand.

I wonder if this service was DOA or someone decided along the way that it had no future.

The point you make about other carriers blocking CallVantage or purposely decreasing its quality levels is very valid. If you own the pipes and you charge taxes for others to use those pipes, expect other carriers to get back at you.

There could always be reciprocal agreements set up but at this point does AT&T own so many “pipes” that it just doesn’t need any other lines to make tons of money?