12 March 2007

The US court decision that found VoIP service provider Vonage
Holdings Corp had infringed patents held by Verizon Communications Inc
could have serious implications for the VoIP carrier market, according
to Jan Dawson, VP of the US Enterprise Practice of analyst house Ovum,
part of the Datamonitor group.

"Verizon is asking for an injunction which will effectively close Vonage down, so if that goes through, it would affect any other VoIP provider that has the same technology," said Dawson.Edison, New Jersey-based Vonage is the largest standalone VoIP provider in the US market, "which is why Verizon went after them," said the Ovum analyst.

"This case could have a ripple effect across the whole VoIP market. There are lots of other, smaller players who stand to be hit," he went on, citing in particular 8x8 Inc, the company behind the Packet8 Broadband Phone Service, and SunRocket Inc, which operates the SunRocket Internet Phone Service. "They are competitors to Vonage and are in line to be affected," said Dawson.