SunRocket Postmortem: Virtual Everything Means No One Really Gives A Damn

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From NYT:

Start-ups like SunRocket and Vonage, the largest and best known of the group, tend to offer only phone service, and they do not have the ability of the larger companies to ensure quality of service because they do not operate their own telecommunications lines, said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at Pali Research in New York. "They only have one product and they can't control quality," Mr. Greenfield said, adding that the business is "extremely challenging."
So they leased their lines, outsourced their call center, and except for an office in Vienna, VA, were for all intents and purposes, a virtual operation.

From NYT:

Start-ups like SunRocket and Vonage, the largest and best known of the group, tend to offer only phone service, and they do not have the ability of the larger companies to ensure quality of service because they do not operate their own telecommunications lines, said Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at Pali Research in New York. “They only have one product and they can’t control quality,” Mr. Greenfield said, adding that the business is “extremely challenging.”

So they leased their lines, outsourced their call center, and except for an office in Vienna, VA, were for all intents and purposes, a virtual operation.

Beware doing business with companies that have no fixed assets (remember Amp’d?). Makes it much easier for them to treat customers like a one-night stand.

Crazy, though. SunRocket was the number 2 VoIP provider after Vonage.

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