The breaking news from GigaOM this morning is that SunRocket is dead. Calls to SunRocket's Customer Service number state that they are no longer taking Sales or Customer Service calls. A former SunRocket employee posts in comments to the GigaOm post suggests the rank-and-file employees had no clue this was coming.
This is no big shock to me. As I said before, I expect many more standalone VoIP providers that don't provide any real value to go down in flames. I wonder when Vonage's number is up, personally.
There is an open question about what will happen to those approximately 200,000 people whom still have service with SunRocket. Early reports from customers suggest the service is still operating, but for how long? And will you be able to port your number out before the lights get turned out?
I'd love to hear from customers and/or employees of SunRocket about your experiences, or customers/employees of similar companies who have experienced a similar problem. Post in the comments.
Update: Hat-tip to Alec Saunders for finding the NY Times article confirming all this.
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guys, i would stop chasing the freebies and the bargains. technology costs money – period. ask sunrocket. i sat in a meeting with the sunrocket executives a year ago and was absolutely amazed that they continually stated that their biggest competitor was vonage. when i asked about the cable companies – with very deep pockets, millions of existing customers and huge marketing organizations and budgets – they looked at me like i had two heads. their response was that cable wants to bundle services and therefore will not be price competitive. well, fair enough, but their shit works and they have money. my time warner voip has been absolutely bulletproof for almost two years, zero outages and QoS off the scale – and i’m in the business and i’m very hard to impress. there are more sunrockets out there. play it safe, don’t prepay, go with your local cable company.
I agree with you about choosing your provider carefully. It’s advise I’d give anyone in this day and age.
Where I’m moving, the local phone company (CenturyTel) provides a very competitive deal on phone service with unlimited long distance and all features. I think the Comcast’s “bundle” with Voice, Video, and Internet might be a few bucks cheaper, but I’m not going to quibble over a few bucks. If I can buy the same service with proven landline reliability for only a few bucks more than VoIP, I’m not going to consider the alternative. The peace of mind is worth a few extra dollars.
I wouldn’t attribute this to the growing VoIP world – if anything the reason this company failed is due to a poor business plan and a poorly executed one
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