U Verse

Your VoIP Stocking Stuffers: News and Tidbits at the end of the year

Pete Wylie — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:33:39 -0500

> PEERLESS NETWORK SELECTS SONUS

> Jeff Pulver lists 12 clever things to do with VoIP for the holiday season.

> From Idaho, Lessons Learned in Finding a Solid Home VoIP Provider

> Genachowski to be new FCC Chaiman?

> BroadSoft and Sylantro - Thank you, Mr. Off-the-record

> AT&T rolls out U-Verse for SMBs

SPOTLIGHT: CallVantage Out, BYOB VoIP In?

Doug Mohney — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:09:16 -0400

Since AT&T is no longer taking new orders for CallVantage VoIP, there's lots of buzz on what might replace it for existing AT&T DSL customers.

DSLReports.com says AT&T is going to roll out a "BYOB" (Bring your own broadband) VoIP product in the fall or winter. The new BYOB VoIP will be a best-effort, lower priced service than the company's U-Verse Voice product; since U-Verse Voice runs as a prioritized service over AT&T's IP network, it gets to charge a premium for QoS.

For more:
- DSLReports.com reports on new AT&T VoIP offering

Related articles
AT&T CallVantage: Dead or Rebranded?
AT&T tests voice over U-verse

U-verse gets Voice

Doug Mohney — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:30:20 -0400

AT&T has launched a massive trial of its new U-verse voice service, making it available to all current U-verse IPTV customers in the San Antonio area.

The bundled offering now gives AT&T a "triple play" of voice, IPTV, and broadband. U-verse voice calls will be routed over the company's U-verse network rather than the "public" Internet.

New features to the U-verse voice services include the ability to combine VoIP service with AT&T wireless voice mail, an online management portal to manage call preferences and voice mail from a web browser, a click-to-call feature within a call history feature, and a "Locate Me" simultaneous ring on up to four phone numbers.

An unlimited voice plan (Canada and the U.S.) will cost $40 a month, while the Voice 1000 plan will cost $30 a month and include 1,000 calling minutes to anywhere in the U.S. Customers can add a second line to U-verse voice service for $20 a month.

AT&T estimates that U-verse currently has around 549,000 subscribers around the country; a relative drop in the bucket when compared to cable company subs or Verizon's 2 million FiOS customers.

For more:
- Network World reports on AT&T launching voice for U-verse

Related articles:
AT&T to bundle U-verse, VoIP
AT&T CallVantage: Dead or Rebranded?

AT&T CallVantage: Dead or Rebranded?

Doug Mohney — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:24:56 -0400

Is AT&T's stand-alone consumer VoIP service dead? Or merely being rebranded?

Posting late last week, Om Malik says AT&T CallVantage is dead because AT&T has stopped pushing the service through its affiliate channels and that AT&T VP Cathy Martine is now running the company's CDN business.

A number of readers have stepped out of the woodwork to disagree with Om's assertion and also mourn the potential loss of CallVantage, a service that won lots of praise for its call quality if not the way it was marketed. The folks at iLocus say CallVantage is merely being relaunched to go with AT&T's U-verse triple-play fiber bundle. An anonymous poster says AT&T plans to relaunch the VoIP service as it rolls out its IMS infrastructure. Once the new product is out there, it will be put head-to-head against cable companies and Verizon in markets where AT&T doesn't have landline coverage.

For more:
- Om Malik says AT&T CallVantage is Dead

Related articles:
AT&T to bundle U-verse, VoIP
Verizon Business, AT&T in new VoIP initiatives