According to News.com, AT&T's CallVantage service had an underwhelming 53,000 VOIP customers at the end of 2004. Om Malik provides all kinds of scenarios, including a suggestion AT&T could bail out of the retail space and focus on the wholesale market. So what should people read into the CallVantage numbers? Perhaps consumers are down on AT&T or, more alarming, they just weren't ready to jump on the VOIP bandwagon last year. Of course, the counter argument is Vonage seems to have no problems winning customers. Perhaps SBC/AT&T should shelve CallVantage as a good idea gone wrong, throw in the towel and start over again by acquiring Vonage. It's only a matter of time before Vonage is bought or does an IPO so let's get the speculation ball rolling!
Addendum: The source for the News.com story is Halpern Capital analyst Keith Dalrymple, who had expected AT&T to have 75,000 customers. He believes CallVantage's problems are probably due to a variety of reasons, including churn and last-mile access challenges. "Wither goes Callvantage?," he said in a report. "Early in the launch, AT&T had targeted 1 million subscribers by the end of 2006. Without changes, we have doubts concerning the achieve-ability of this figure, particularly given the legendary marketing push during the 2004 summer Olympics."
Andy Abramson believes CallVantage's modest numbers may have to do with its "carefully planned entry into the enterprise market. This is where AT&T's business model of being disciplined, versus the drunken sailor approach of spending ad dollars towards a market that doesn't know what they may want." Well said, Andy.