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Answer You - To Vonage or Not to Vonage
Does Your Wordpress 404 Page Work in IE? . Vonage was ordered to pay Verizon $58 million dollars as well as royalties of 5.5% of every sale. Then on April 6, 2007 a judge barred Vonage from signing up any new customers. Vonage quickly received a permanent stay on April 24, 2007, from the U.S. Court of Appeals which allowed the company to continue signing up new customers. Vonage continues to appeal the decision in court while at the same time stating that it has possible workarounds to the patents that Verizon claims it violated.These days you have to design your sites for both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. As most designers know, pages don't always look the same in different browser platforms. But it doesn't stop at page design, there's a bug in IE which could have a negative impact on your site.Now one of the reasons Wordpress has become so popular is because it takes the guesswork out of designing pages. It's now beginning to take the guesswork out of SEO too.H To Vonage or Not t There has been a lot of news in the last few months regarding the legal case that Verizon has brought against Vonage for patent infringement. This article will go over the background of VoIP and analyze some of the current legal action that is ongoing in regards to the Vonage service. What is VoIP VoIP as defined by http://searchvoip.techtarget.com is “an IP telephony term for a set of facilities used to manage the delivery of voice information over the internet”. What that basically means is that using VoIP, you can conduct telephone conversations over the same network that your computer data uses. In residential applications, this is usually much cheaper than using the traditional landline phone companies. Residential VoIP Providers There are currently a number of residential VoIP providers that consumers are able to use to provide them with telephone service over their broadband connection. Also, note that a broadband connection is necessary in order to have VoIP service at your home. The most popular residential VoIP provider today is Vonage. Your local cable company most likely also offers a VoIP solution of some sort, typically bundled with your cable television package. Current Legal Issue Facing Vonage In the first half of 2006, it seemed that Vonage was on quite a roll in acquiring new customers and building its customer base at a phenomenal rate. Then, on June 12, 2006 Verizon filed suit in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia claiming patent infringement on a number of Verizon patents. Included among the allegedly infringed patent is the way that Vonage connects internet phone calls to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), or simply the normal landlines. Also included was the way Vonage provides call forwarding and voice mail. All of these features represent significant portions of Vonage’s service. On March 8, 2007 a jury found Vonage guilty of infringing on three of Verizon’s patents and not guilty of infringing on two others. Vonage was ordered to pay Verizon $58 million dollars as well as royalties of 5.5% of every sale. Then on April 6, 2007 a judge barred Vonage from signing up any new customers. Vonage quickly received a permanent stay on April 24, 2007, from the U.S. Court of Appeals which allowed the company to continue signing up new customers. Vonage continues to appeal the decision in court while at the same time stating that it has possible workarounds to the patents that Verizon claims it violated. To Vonage or Not to Residential VoIP Providers There are currently a number of residential VoIP providers that consumers are able to use to provide them with telephone service over their broadband connection. Also, note that a broadband connection is necessary in order to have VoIP service at your home. The most popular residential VoIP provider today is Vonage. Your local cable company most likely also offers a VoIP solution of some sort, typically bundled with your cable television package. Current Legal Issue Facing Vonage In the first half of 2006, it seemed that Vonage was on quite a roll in acquiring new customers and building its customer base at a phenomenal rate. Then, on June 12, 2006 Verizon filed suit in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia claiming patent infringement on a number of Verizon patents. Included among the allegedly infringed patent is the way that Vonage connects internet phone calls to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), or simply the normal landlines. Also included was the way Vonage provides call forwarding and voice mail. All of these features represent significant portions of Vonage’s service. On March 8, 2007 a jury found Vonage guilty of infringing on three of Verizon’s patents and not guilty of infringing on two others. Vonage was ordered to pay Verizon $58 million dollars as well as royalties of 5.5% of every sale. Then on April 6, 2007 a judge barred Vonage from signing up any new customers. Vonage quickly received a permanent stay on April 24, 2007, from the U.S. Court of Appeals which allowed the company to continue signing up new customers. Vonage continues to appeal the decision in court while at the same time stating that it has possible workarounds to the patents that Verizon claims it violated. To Vonage or Not t Current Legal Issue Facing Vonage In the first half of 2006, it seemed that Vonage was on quite a roll in acquiring new customers and building its customer base at a phenomenal rate. Then, on June 12, 2006 Verizon filed suit in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Virginia claiming patent infringement on a number of Verizon patents. Included among the allegedly infringed patent is the way that Vonage connects internet phone calls to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), or simply the normal landlines. Also included was the way Vonage provides call forwarding and voice mail. All of these features represent significant portions of Vonage’s service. On March 8, 2007 a jury found Vonage guilty of infringing on three of Verizon’s patents and not guilty of infringing on two others. Vonage was ordered to pay Verizon $58 million dollars as well as royalties of 5.5% of every sale. Then on April 6, 2007 a judge barred Vonage from signing up any new customers. Vonage quickly received a permanent stay on April 24, 2007, from the U.S. Court of Appeals which allowed the company to continue signing up new customers. Vonage continues to appeal the decision in court while at the same time stating that it has possible workarounds to the patents that Verizon claims it violated. To Vonage or Not t To Vonage or Not t To Vonage or Not to Vonage With all of the uncertainty of the Verizon lawsuit, as well as facing another patent infringement lawsuit from Sprint, there would seem to be little reason to recommend switching your phone service to Vonage at this point in time. However, with the savings received each month from switching to the lower cost service, it is possible that the amount of money saved could outweigh the uncertainty of Vonage's future. For example, if you do a lot of long distance calling, the unlimited long distance option could lead to significant savings in comparison to a typical landline long distance provider. Also, since the technology is obviously in very high demand, the chance of Vonage simply going away is almost nil. If Vonage does not survive outright, chances are that it will be bought by a larger company and integrated into their service, thereby most likely continuing your service uninterrupted. Having said that, with all the risks known, I would recommend the switch to Vonage or some other residential VoIP solution if your calling habits would allow you to save a significant amount.
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