T-Mobile has dramatically challenged the market structure of the residential VoIP market offering a bundled cellular and at-home VoIP service for an extra $10 a month with a cellular plan. The deeply discounted VoIP offering is almost certainly to be matched by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, which already have access to stand-alone VoIP offerings.
The T-Mobile announcement most obviously threatens Vonage, which has a stand-alone VoIP offering starting at $25 a month. But it also challenges the cable companies, currently without wireless offerings to support their VoIP products.
Deutsche Telecom-owned T-Mobile is trialling its "Talk Forever" VoIP service in Seattle and Dallas; its success is likely to depend on its quality and its ease of transition. Users of the VoIP offering will pay a one-off fee of $50 for the VoIP converter, which connects to a line between the phone jack and the telephone. New VoIP providers have typically had to endure high churn rates from customers dissatisfied with the quality of both the actual service and customer support. Vonage is still losing a third of its customers each year.
The VoIP PR was overshadowed by the flat price announcement by Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile itself, each offering unlimited mobile calling for $100 a month.
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T-Mobile Advertisement
[1]
Related articles:
T-Mobile USA offers landline over Hotspot@Home Report [2]
Flat-rate revolution Report [3]
Links:
[1] http://talkforever.t-mobile.com/how_it_works.aspx
[2] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/t-mobile-usa-offers-landline-over-hotspothome/2008-02-21
[3] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/flat-rate-revolution/2008-02-22