Looks like Vonage is IPOing and allowing anybody who's been a customer since Dec 05 to participate. You have to make a conditional offer on at least 100 shares (at an estimated price for $16-18 each). They left a message about it on my Vonage voicemail.

Seems like a pretty damned shaky investment to me. Anybody planning to take part?

5/9/2006 7:20:05 PM

I got the same message. Although it only came to my email and not on my phone voicemail inbox. There was a discussion of this in the Stock Market thread in The Lounge. Here's a very relevant post that makes a shittonne of sense:

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=378159&page=9#8739984

5/9/2006 7:24:15 PM

I wouldn't stay in for the long term, but there's the prospect of turning a decent profit off the IPO.

5/9/2006 7:41:53 PM

The fact that they're offering it to customers at the IPO price is telling...

5/9/2006 10:19:41 PM

telling of what...that the seriously need to raise money to cover this hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising loss?

5/9/2006 11:03:06 PM

it'll make a crapload of money quickly and then all the people will sell.

get in while you can and try to time it right.

5/10/2006 1:51:21 AM

woo-hoo

woo hoo-hoo



woo-hoo

woo hoo-hoo




woo-hoo

woo hoo-hoo

5/10/2006 2:16:53 AM

Quote :

"telling of what...that the seriously need to raise money to cover this hundreds of millions of dollars of advertising loss?"

bingo.

5/10/2006 9:55:46 AM

So much for the Vonage IPO. Opened up at $17 as an IPO today, now has traded down to $15.12

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=vg

I hope none of you bought into it.

5/24/2006 11:09:04 AM

I talked myself out of it and I'm glad I did. It sounded like a good idea until I realized that they were in a contest to see how much money they could piss away.

5/24/2006 11:13:29 AM

They built it up for failure. After getting multiple messages on my work & home phones and then the e-mails I was like there is no way this is a good idea.

5/24/2006 2:28:30 PM

this would have been a good ipo 7 years ago

5/24/2006 2:42:29 PM

Its down to $12 now. Definately glad I didn't get in on the IPO . . . . although once it hits bottom it might be a decent grab.

6/2/2006 4:45:42 PM

6/2/2006 4:47:03 PM

It won't be a good buy until the company is in the black again.

6/2/2006 4:51:51 PM

So who has "sometime next week" in the Vonage customers "losing phone service" pool? this company may fall apart quicker then anyone thinks..... and to think that folks told me I was wrong when I urged them not to purchase the IPO. The funny part is that I am still seeing Vonage ads on TV during major network prime-time at a time where Vonage is barred from signing up new customers.

Vonage shares slide on bankruptcy risk warning
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070418/vonage_shares.html?.v=3

"The Internet phone company also cited the risk of service interruptions, an inability to repay its debt and a decline in its stock that could lead to the delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. The warning was part of its annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday."

4/19/2007 9:34:30 AM

Out of curiosity, with these patents being as broad as they are, what is the chance that some of Cisco's gear infringes on them?

4/19/2007 9:43:16 AM

Vonage isnt currently barred from signing up customers, they were granted a stay.

4/19/2007 9:56:01 AM

^ ah, i think you're right. I believe they can sign up new members at least until the next appeals hearing on 4/24.

^^
I don't know for sure, as my technical depth of our VoIP product line is pretty minimal, but looking at the patents that Vonage is allegedly infringing on, I'm not sure how some of these patents even exist.

This is a list of all of the patents that were leveraged against Vonage; these are pulled from a copy of the filing. I couldn't find a copy of the ruling, so I'd have to guess which ones actually were upheld in the verdict against Vonage.

Patent #6,430,275: (Upheld?) Enhanced signaling for terminating resource (issued 8/2002)
This patent pretty much covers a generic system for VoIP/POTS handoff with real-time billing/authorization. The key point covered by this patent is the connection between "switched telephone network" (POTS) and a "packet switched network" (Internet).

Patent #6,137,869: Network session management (issued 10/2000)
This patent pretty much covers CDR's and database-oriented authorization for calling.

Patent #6,104,711: Enhanced Internet domain name server (issued 8/2000)
Enhanced DNS service that returns different routing information based on certain criteria such as nonavailability of a given host.

Patent #6,282,574: Method, server and telecommunications system for name translation on a conditional basis and/or to a telephone number (issued 8/2001)
Pretty much the same as the previous patent. Now this is also covered by two open standards, SIP and H.323. I don't know what method Vonage uses, but Cisco certainly supports both SIP and H.323.

Patent #6,128,304: (Upheld?) Network presence for a communications system operating over a computer network (issued 10/2000)
Covers a system where, when a call is placed, the system determines whether the destination is available and forwards to an alternative destination if unavailable. The wording of this patent seems to be oriented towards voice mail.

Patent #6,298,062: System providing integrated services over a computer network (issued 10/2001)
Selective call routing. Not too different from the previous patent in a lot of ways, but covers features such as ring-anywhere feature that is popular in VoIP where a single telephone number can ring an office, cell, and home phone.

Patent #6,359,880: (Upheld?) Public wireless/cordless Internet gateway (issued 3/2002)
This patent basically describes a telco switch with integrated wireless capabilities.

[Edited on April 19, 2007 at 10:13 AM. Reason : asdf]

4/19/2007 10:10:05 AM

If my phone stops working becuase of Vorizon's lawsuit agaist Vonage, can I sue Vorizon becuase their asshattery took away my cheap phone service.

Secondly, why aren't the other VOIP companies being sued? Are they next or did they do something different than Vonage to avoid any litigation?

4/19/2007 10:39:48 AM

^ that's exactly the concept that many people have. Verizon waited for Vonage to become big and then attacked them. It's a shitty tactic. They also aren't attacking anyone else about it. But... never fear, prior art might smack Verizon back. No details as of yet.

4/19/2007 10:43:43 AM

I'm with Packet8 which claims to have proprietary VoIP technology (per the newsletter I received last week). What's funny is that the letter was addresses from the CEO of the company and he was like, " it really sucks that Verizon is suing Vonage and they can't sign up new customers, so tell all your friends about us!".

4/19/2007 1:34:46 PM

okay, can someone explain this to me in a little more depth? i fully admit that i'm fairly ignorant of what's going on and how it will affect me as a vonage customer...

in fact, should i be changing services? i really only have vonage for the sole purpose of holding on to my phone number as a forward to my cell phone...i don't NEED the actual service

so my question is this: based on what's going on with vonage right now, and considering the fact that i'm under no contract with them, and that i own the linksys PAP2 VoIP modem, do you guys have any suggestions? i pay $14.99/mo right now - i know companies like sunrocket (i think) put on $200/2-yrs deals now and then, but i don't really want to be in a contract since i already own the modem

4/19/2007 2:03:43 PM

The PAP2s are some fucking awesome devices. Sipura really makes some great stuff. If you look around the internets you should be able to find a copy of the unlocked, sipura firmware along with instructions on how to flash the PAP2 with it. From there you could switch the SIP config to point to another provider. Note that in doing this you'll probably clear the vonage config and make it unusable on their network. Vonage charges $5 on top of normal service if you want the sip config info.

Honestly though, depending on the provider you choose they may toss you the device for free.


Good links here, here, and here. The first link is a collection of ways to do it, the second is I think probably the best way, and the last (which is part of the steps in the second link) is how I unlocked one. However, when I unlocked mine I got rid of the vonage config info. It looks like if you use the method posted in the second link you'd be able to preseve the vonage login info for use with other sip enabled devices or softphones.

[Edited on April 19, 2007 at 6:05 PM. Reason : .]

4/19/2007 6:02:21 PM

^ thanks! actually, i tried to do it briefly, and i was only able to get to the login page once...now it's not letting me back in (and the password didn't work)...i'll probably give it another shot tomorrow, but i appreciate it! it never really occurred to me to look for a hack

4/19/2007 11:45:51 PM

Quote :

"Vonage wins permanent stay Vonage this week received a permanent stay of injunction from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington D.C. that would have barred it from signing up new customers."

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/042407-bulletin-vonage-gets-permanent-stay.html?nlhtspec=042507specialalert1&company=

It was up 50% yesterday on this news.

And only down 75% from it's IPO price!

another article on the court stay:
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070424/vonage_court.html?.v=6

This does not mean that all the fundamental business problems with the company have disappeared, however.

4/25/2007 9:49:25 AM

^^^ do you, by any chance, remember what firmware you were working with? apparently, i have the absolute latest - 3.1.9(LsC), i think - and i can't seem to find the password for the admin login (i've enabled the web interface, but i can't get access to the firmware change area)...maybe i was misreading the instructions at those sites (thanks, btw), but it's not going nearly as smoothly as it was implied it should

4/25/2007 6:30:32 PM

ah damn. That firmware may be too new. They've probably fixed the hole by now. There are some other things you can try that focus around spoofing the vonage firmware server. You could look into those.


now that i look back, i think i used this guide.

First setup a tftp server. Put the firmware on the tftp server. Then set a username and password on the device. The firmware update util on the pap2 is not obviously accesable. Its some kind of script or something.

http://192.168.1.5/upgrade?tftp://192.168.1.110/SP2K-PAP2.bin

4/25/2007 7:27:21 PM

also i would stop after step 13 in that how to

4/25/2007 8:11:05 PM

The last few nails are being hammered in to the coffin...

9/26/2007 12:24:43 PM

9/26/2007 12:37:16 PM

what be these nails you speak of? linkz, plz

9/26/2007 1:40:49 PM

sprint + verifone

looking at 120 mil in lawsuits... 55 mil just got confirmed...

Problem is I like the service and hope they last atleast a little while, they are great for international calls (to places where computer convos aren't an option).

9/26/2007 2:14:00 PM

^^
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070926/vonage_verizon_court.html?.v=2

9/26/2007 2:17:40 PM

^ thanks

Quote :

"i really only have vonage for the sole purpose of holding on to my phone number as a forward to my cell phone...i don't NEED the actual service"

any suggestions for a cheap(er) way to hold on to my number? again, i don't need the service, so 500 minutes of talk time versus unlimited is not an issue...i would love to just pay $5/month to hold on to the number itself as a forward...

9/26/2007 2:49:10 PM

Gone are the days of a 60+ land line phone bill - or at least it should be.

I have a feeling if Vonage tanks there will not be any good alternate - I am just not up on the scene.
Who else is out there - and I am not talking about a Mom and Pop vendor.

9/26/2007 2:54:42 PM

sunrocket? packet8?

[Edited on September 26, 2007 at 2:59 PM. Reason : apparently, sunrocket's out of the game]

9/26/2007 2:58:51 PM

At work we use the Packet8 Global Unlimited

Phone calls to Germany and England sound just as clear as on a land line with only minimal (rarely ever notice) additional delay.

I think our bill is somewhere around $50 / month, its amazing.

9/26/2007 3:02:19 PM

My girlfriend has Comcast's voice package, and it SUCKS compared to my Vonage, and is more expensive. If my Vonage goes down, I'll have to look at Packet8 or some other alternative.

9/26/2007 3:35:54 PM

i hope vonage doesn't fail. cheap phone service is great. esp. $19 unlimited phone service.

9/26/2007 7:09:02 PM

haha $17 to $0.96 in 1.5 years... sexy

9/26/2007 8:21:14 PM

^^ they've pretty much already failed, but there are others out there

Check http://www.voipreview.org

9/27/2007 9:17:46 AM