Vonage and Comcast, the largest VoIP provider in the nation's consumption and the second ISP, respectively, announced plans last week to work on improvements to call quality for both subscribers. Some subscribers and external observers believe that Comcast has already taken proactive steps to interfere with the quality of Vonage customers who also use a call Comcast broadband connection.
Comcast has already taken steps to "throttle" or limit the total amount of bandwidth available for accounts of subscribers, who used a disproportionate amount of Internet business resources . VoIP services are relatively bandwidth intensive, so it is very possible that Vonage subscribers who also use Comcast could have access "strangled". This would certainly have a negative impact on the quality of the call Vonage subscribers.
Comcast also operates an Internet phone service that competes directly with Vonage. This has fueled further speculation that Comcast could have taken steps to artificially produce a negative user experience for Vonage subscribers on their Internet broadband network.
This partnership is probably an attempt to calm these Comcast anticompetitive rumors. Comcast CTO Tony Werner said:
"This collaboration with Vonage, and our outreach to many key participants in the Internet community, demonstrate that we are committed to provide network management solutions that benefit the consumers and competition. "
We do not believe that Comcast was engaged in proactive attempts to stop Vonage service for competitive reasons. The reality is that Comcast subscribers who use large amounts of cable Internet bandwidth are costly to the company and are probably choosing motivator throughout limitation happens. Whatever the motivation, this partnership is ideal for Comcast subscribers currently using Vonage consumer VoIP service or may do so in the future as it means that consumers will have access to the best possible call quality .
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