AOL Tries to Become VOIP Gorilla

After startups like Vonage, brand names like AT&T, and freeware like Skype, AOL is into the voice over Internet (VOIP) market for telephony. With millions of customers, AOL has to be taken seriously. However, many customers are still using dial-up, and VOIP brings nothing to those customers.

Whether AOL can become the next gorilla in VOIP is problematic. The key takeaway from this announcement, which follows on the not to subtle plug for VOIP by Intel last week at its developer forum, is that the VOIP saloon is open, and customers can belly up to the bar. I expect several million more broadband customers will try VOIP this year, further cratering the landline business. The real gorillas to watch do not include AOL: watch how SBC and Verizon play with the VOIP revenue hand grenade.

Peter S. Kastner