Intellectual Property Law

Comcast and Vonage Align on Network Management

By Cynthia Brumfield

In a surprising announcement, the nation's top cable operator Comcast and the number one independent VoIP provider Vonage today said they will work together to ensure that Comcast's network management techniques don't mar the functioning of Vonage's competitive voice offering. This move builds on alliances Comcast forged with BitTorrent and Pando Networks in the wake of the operator's public pummeling for using bandwidth mangement technology that interfered with P2P protocols.

What's interesting and surprising is that Vonage is not based on P2P technology, unlike Skype and other competitive VoIP providers. So this effort by Comcast, which extends to a seemingly unrelated "over-the-top" technology seems, well, out of the blue. Has Vonage had problems with Comcast causing problems for its customers, problems that stemmed not from the same kind of packet reset technology that spurred the initial controversy?

I asked Comcast what drove the deal with Vonage and a spokesperson said simply that "Vonage is the largest independent over-the-top VoIP provider in the U.S." I contacted Vonage with the same question and heard nothing back.

What makes the timing of this announcement curious -- or perhaps just coincidental -- is that I recently signed up for Comcast cable modem service in D.C. and had problems configuring my modem, wireless router and Vonage router. The problems were entirely due to my own tech incompetence, as I ultimately discovered, but before I found this out, I contacted Comcast's tech support for help.

In an effort to help me diagnose my problem, Comcast's tech support rep told me that one problem might be that the Vonage router was "overloading my modem." When I pressed him on how this might be the case, all he could say is that Vonage phones "strain" the modem.

I twittered this incident and heard back from Comcastcares, Comcast's go-to guy on Twitter, who said that the tech rep was wrong and offered to help. At the time I thought the rep must be misinformed or technically limited but in light of this Comcast-Vonage alliance, I wonder....

Full post as published by IP Democracy on July 09, 2008 (boomark / email).