Welcome back, Frank. I lack the background to respond intelligently to your well-argued position regarding VoIP and ATHM, or ca-caphony as you say. However, I found your post, and the ones linked, very educational.
I did mention to ahhaha that the biggest problem ATHM might have in this area is sucking up to T, which agrees with your comment about T not wanting ATHM to compete in this area. The Cisco article you linked emphasizes even more how data integration for the home is becoming the next battlespace. In that regard, it might be in ATHM's best interest to focus on becoming the premier bandwidth ISP/Portal, while the big boys battle it out for integration supremacy. Whoever wins, ATHM would be in an excellent position to assume a major role as a content provider, given that they can increase their customer base.
One question on VoIP, from a non-expert but someone who has been intrigued by the possibility of sticking it to the traditional telcos: isn't the US market saturated, and aren't the margins so low that it is hardly worth the effort? I guess those are two questions. I always thought the real prize to VoIP profits were in the overseas market, trying to play on deregulation and the extremely high costs imposed by their bureaucracies, particularly for business applications. |
