Vonage Goes Way North
Oh the lengths Vonage will go for new customers. Vonage and Oakville, Ont.-based Galaxy Broadband, which provides satellite-based Internet access to consumers and businesses, have signed a deal to offer VOIP service to remote locations in Canada such as logging camps, oil rigs, and hunting and fishing lodges.
Not sure the size of this market but it is worth noting remote communities receive little attention from the high-speed access providers given there is still fertile room for growth in highly-populated urban centres. That said, I would think people who live in remote locations would be happy to pay a premium for Internet services - although you do have to wonder why anyone at a fishing or hunting lodge would want to call civilization.
To emphasize the business opportunity, Vonage and Galaxy cited a fishing lodge in northern Manitoba, North Knife Lake Lodge, which has cut its long-distance phone bills by “hundreds of dollars” by switching to VOIP from satellite phones.
I wonder if Vonage's marketing-savvy CEO Jeff Citron is planning a trip to the Great White North with his trademark orange phone? Advice to Jeff: if you do it, bring a parka and leave the Armani at home.
