14 DAY TRIAL // Verizon Communications Inc. is reported to have announced its customers about the shutdown of its VoiceWing Internet-based phone service and about it planning to focus on new technologies. It seems that the operator intends to close VoiceWing permanently on March 31, at least this is what a letter the company sent to customers states.
The phone carrier also informs users that they can keep their phone numbers if they move to another service, but, since the process will take a lot of time, almost three weeks that is, they might not have enough time to search for an alternative.
VoiceWing subscribers were provided with an adapter allowing them to connect a phone to a broadband Internet line and make phone calls this way. The service is similar to AT&T's CallVantage and the phone services of Vonage Holdings Corp.
This type of Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, services has registered a nice boost during the last decade, yet lost popularity due to persistent problems with audio quality as well as because of a patent litigation from phone companies against market leader Vonage, in which Verizon took part. The same technology was used by cable companies for the introduction of their own phone services.
The back-end service for VoiceWing was run by VoIP company Deltathree Inc., which is experiencing an acute financial crisis, while its stock has been delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market.
According to Verizon spokeswoman Bobbi Henson, the shutdown of VoiceWing "was a business decision based on a number of factors including the strategic fit of the service in our evolving digital voice portfolio.”
As we've already reported, the phone operator has recently announced The Hub, a touchscreen home phone with multifunction capabilities, which connects to a broadband line. The New York-based company also has plans to introduce VoIP service for customers on its own fiber-optic connections. Until now, any user with an Internet connection could benefit from VoiceWing.
Bobbi Henson also stated that VoiceWing was “a niche service that was never mass marketed,” though she didn't unveil the number of VoiceWing customers. As many of you might already know, AT&T stopped adding new subscribers to CallVantage last summer.