Everything's in a name

There are many ways to argue over the significance of the announcement AT&T made this week regarding the carrier's rollout of residential voice-over-IP services in New Jersey, and ultimately nationwide: Does it mark the "official" embrace of VoIP by large incumbent telecom carriers? (Well, yes and no, since several other big carriers have announced similar limited rollouts already.) Is the carrier's feature set "skimpier" than those of its competitors? (Well, yes and no, since every provider's offering is a bit different.) Is it price-competitive? (Well, yes and no, since different carriers are targeting different customer sets with their service packages.) I could go on and on...

Personally, I think the most significant aspects of the service launch are the brand name and the reaction that brand elicited from the competition. Specifically, I'm talking about a report that upstart VoIP provider Vonage is suing AT&T, claiming that the carrier's new VoIP service brand, "CallVantage" (note the capital "V"), is too close to Vonage's name and deliberately designed to confuse consumers.

To my way of thinking, both sides of this situation are evidence of the fact that the VoIP sector is officially a competitive hotbed--both the fact that the likes of AT&T picked a service name so close to that of a competitor, and the fact that the competitor reacted so swiftly to it. It also says a lot--and is perhaps a warning sign for all extant telecom service providers with VoIP aspirations--that AT&T felt it needed something more than the AT&T brand to appeal to a VoIP customer market.

So by all means, let's dig in and analyze all the network technology decisions, features, pricing plans and quality of service issues that are critical to voice-over-IP competition. But before we do that, let's stop and take note of the significance this one branding decision has on the whole VoIP sector.

E-mail me at jmeyers@primediabusiness.com