Internet phone company Vonage said on Tuesday a federal appeals court permanently stayed a lower court order that barred it from signing up new customers.
The latest ruling came about two hours after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. heard arguments from lawyers representing Vonage and Verizon.
Each side answered questions for about 45 minutes. However, the judges gave no indication at the hearing which way they would rule. A court clerk later confirmed that the stay had been granted by the court.
“In layman’s terms, it means business as usual,” said Brooke Schulz, a spokeswoman for Vonage.
I’m not especially a Vonage fan; but, it’s nice to see someone do something more than roll over and play dead for the frackin’ Telcos.
Hilarious! Do you know if Vonage users know how serious this court hearing is? I read that most of Vonage’s customers are still with them, although the shareholders aren’t as loyal/unknowing. I hope Vonage pulls out of their current woes, though. It’ll be a nice “stick it to ’em” thing to happen, but maybe that only happens in the movies.
I’ve been with vonage since 2003. I have always dislike Verizon. I grew up in PA and have had to deal with them over the years. I will do anything possible to avoid paying any baby of bell money if possible.
Comcast keeps trying to get my business, but do they let my wife call her parents who are living in Scotland with unlimited minutes? Will they let me have a virtual phone number in another city so all my friends there can call a local number to call me thousands of miles away?
I am very happy with this stay… party at vonage HQ tonight.
Would someone explain to me the differences in this case and the Blackberry case.
Wow… A good court ruling that doesn’t favor the established mega-corp.
Refreshing.
I love Vonage.
It is inexpensive, fairly reliable, and did I mention inexpensive?
Your phone number follows you around, and extra phone numbers in any are code are only $5. I have local numbers in Texas, California and New York, all connected to the same account.
The best feature: if you don’t pick up the phone, it can forward the voice message to your email as an attached MP3. No more checking answering machines, and if needed, you can then forward the message to someone else or archive it for future reference. If you travel a lot, it is VERY nice to automatically get your voicemail in an email, avoiding having to explicitly check it. I don’t know of any other home phone system that allows you to do that.
Another very happy long-term Vonage customer here. I could never understand why financial analysts (and the markets) so much disliked it: it’s been great and very inexpensive service. I even took it with me to Canada and worked from there as if I was in the US. Really hoping it’s going to make it and stick it to the big guys.
I am another Vonage user that has been following this.
I will stick with Vonage.
If Verizon wins then I will probably go with Skypeout and a phone adapter.
After that, tin cans and a string instead of Verizon.
Or maybe just my cell phone.
Vonage is great. I will use it as long as it is available.
PS> People hate what they don’t understand. And that applies to a lot more than just ip phones.
I, too, am a happy and loyal Vonage customer. I’m also a Verizon customer and haven’t had any problem except for a few reps who were not the brightest. I do wonder, though: does Verizon ever have to release the details of their allegedly infringed patent, or do we just have to guess as to how ridiculous their actual claims are?
Another happy Vonage customer here. I hate phones of all types, but you can’t even get your dry cleaning without a phone number nowadays, so if I have to have one I’ll make it one that’s c-h-e-a-p (worldwide cheap! My wife can call her family in Asia all day if she wants!) and has nice features included free. Vonage is about 1/4 as much as my old AT&T and half as much as the VoIP my ISP keeps trying to push on me. I’ll keep my Vonage until the courts say I have to give it up. Which I hope is never.
So now, Vonage can continue business as usual, which means they will continue to lose money.
In my opinion, the only hope for Vonage is that they will be bought by a big teleco. I think that before their IPO that was the plan, but Skype was a first mover with eBay. I think Vonage missed their chance by waiting too long, and then were forced to do an IPO. I have read that the IPO is one of the worst ones ever, but I guess only time will tell.
I hope Vonage can survive the fallout of what happened w/ verizon. They were a great high speed internet provider. http://t1-connection.com