A View on View :: AOL's Shutting Down TotalTalk

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AOL's Shutting Down TotalTalk

by Mark Evans on Thu 31 Aug 2006 10:08 AM EDT | Permanent Link

Just in time for the VON conference in Boston (which has shifted its focus to video from voice), AOL's foray into the VoIP market is coming to an abrupt close in North America. According to Aswath, TotalTalk will be "terminated" on or about Nov. 30 in the U.S. In Canada, an AOL Canada spokesperson said the service will be terminated in October due to a "pretty challenging and competitive market". Andy Abramson believes that rather than look at AOL's decision as a failure, it's a recognition by the company it will do better in voice through its its AIM PhoneLine service. Andy makes a good point because the "traditional" VoIP market (isn't that a strange phrase) is crowded with Vonage, 8x8, SunRocket the cablecos and even carriers. For AOL, Yahoo, MSN and Google, it makes much more sense to go the IM route than go head to head with the large VoIP service providers.
Update: According to a comment, TotalTalk subscribers in Canada have been sent letters that the service will be shut down on or about Oct. 22.

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VOIP Services, Competition

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Re: AOL's Shutting Down TotalTalk

by Anonymous on Thu 31 Aug 2006 11:38 AM EDT | Permanent Link

Mark -
Have you confirmed this?

The Aswath link presents this as unsubstantiated rumor and as a possible hack on the totaltalk.com mainpage, yet you present it as fact and go further by commenting on the Canadian side with unattributed quotes that don't appear on either link.

The totaltalk.ca website seems to be operating fine.

Out of curiousity, who are you quoting?

Re: Re: AOL's Shutting Down TotalTalk

by Anonymous on Thu 31 Aug 2006 01:04 PM EDT | Permanent Link

AOL has sent all its customers a letter saying they are shutting down in October... see below:

August 28, 2006

Dear AOL® TotalTalk™ Member:

We are writing to inform you AOL will no longer offer the AOL TotalTalk service, which will be discontinued on or about October 22, 2006.

What does this mean for you?

You'll continue to have full access to your service until on or about October 22, 2006, including the "My Account" area of www.totaltalk.ca. Member Services will also be available to assist you with your technical and billing questions until October 22, 2006. We'll be mailing you a letter in early September with information to help you transition to a new phone service.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please call Member Services at 1 877 526-8255. Please note that your subscriptions to other AOL services will not be impacted.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause you. We hope that you have enjoyed using the AOL TotalTalk service and that you'll continue to enjoy other products and services from AOL.

Sincerely,

Glenn McCormack,
General Manager, Member Services

Re: Re: AOL's Shutting Down TotalTalk

by Anonymous on Thu 31 Aug 2006 06:04 PM EDT | Permanent Link

It was sort of a miscarried birth from the start. My contacts at Allstream who was providing the backend said that there wasn't enough interest. They would have been lucky to have more than 500 customers.

AOL isn't the only one, some of the smaller voip players have exited the busines, even some Cdn outfits that had over 1500 users. Some have decided not to run the networks and systems themselves and to outsource the networking, technolgy to bigger players and just remain as marketing companies.

Re: Re: AOL's Shutting Down TotalTalk

by Anonymous on Thu 31 Aug 2006 06:07 PM EDT | Permanent Link

Yak had them beat.

Re: AOL's Shutting Down TotalTalk

by Andy Abramson on Thu 31 Aug 2006 01:41 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

Mark,

I've got some perspective on this and have shared it on my blog today.

http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/2006/08/requiem_for_the.html

Re: Re: AOL's Shutting Down TotalTalk

by Anonymous on Thu 31 Aug 2006 08:43 PM EDT | Permanent Link

Cool if you're in the US. Service not available for Canadians. They do offer a free number and voicemail service with an area code in many States in the US.

If you're Canadian like me and have to have a Beverly Hills address like I do, in California, with an area code of 90210 (also my favourite show as a kid) then you can sign up.

Have fun figuring out the next steps. Couldn't figure out if
I had got a free @aim email account, or if I was supposed
to sign up for an @aol email next.

Maybe someone else has more patience.

Michael Bevan

Broadbandmarket.ca

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