The Register®

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/31/vonage_sues_at_t/

Vonage sues AT&T

Stop stealing our brand!

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco (andrew.orlowski@theregister.co.uk)

Posted in Music and Media, 31st March 2004 01:28 GMT

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Vonage is suing the phone giant AT&T because it says its new VoIP service launched this week confuses customers. Long distance carriers such as AT&T have the most to lose from Internet telephony, which is why they're offering similar services. AT&T has said it wants to sign a million subscribers to its $39 a month a service by the end of next year.

The only trouble, says Vonage, is that AT&T's name of CallVantage is too similar to its own, and has filed suit in a New Jersey court. AT&T is using even more similar domain names: callvantage.com looks very much like its own callvonage.com.

When it declared its intentions in December, AT&T vowed to launch VoIP in a hundred consumer markets. Win or lose, the publicity should help increase Vonage's name recognition in its David against Goliath battle against the incumbent telcos. ®

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