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EarthLink to Roll Out 'trueVoice' Residential VoIP Service
BY JOHANNE TORRES
TMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist
Even though EarthLink is still a few months away from officially launching its VoIP offerings, the bulk of the Internet service provider’s telephony portfolio has already become apparent.
EarthLink plans to roll out a new residential VoIP service dubbed “trueVoice” as a successor to the $29.99 EarthLink Unlimited Voice monthly plan, which the ISP has offered since March 2003 through a reseller agreement with VoIP leader Vonage.
trueVoice is powered by Ensim’s telephone provisioning software built on top of Sonus Networks’ Voice-over-Broadband platform, Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers and Level 3 Communications for connectivity and e911 services. The service would complement EarthLink’s line-powered voice service, which the ISP plans to trial in San Francisco, Seattle and Dallas through a partnership with Covad Communications, and its Vling softphone, which is powered by Pingtel and is currently in the beta-testing phase.
Pricing and availability for trueVoice haven’t yet been determined. More importantly, however, it remains unclear if trueVoice will be offered in lieu of Vonage’s wholesale offering.
“I’m not in a position to answer that question at this time. Today, Vonage continues to be a partner we work with to offer EarthLink Unlimited Voice,” said Jerry Grasso, EarthLink spokesperson.
But at least one industry observer believes that partnership isn’t likely to continue. “I wonder when that contract expires, but I'm pretty sure it won't be renewed,” wrote Tom Keating, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Editor at TMC, in his popular VoIP & Gadget News Blog.
Vonage officials weren’t available for comment.
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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit:
http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100006&nm=Johanne%20Torres
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