Mark Evans

AOL's VOIP Strategy

After several calls to AOL Canada's customer service people, I finally got TotalTalk working - turned out I fell victim to one of a bad bunch of routers AOL has manufactured overseas that would let me receive calls but gave me a busy signal when I tried to make a call. When asked how TotalTalk is doing AOL Canada head Craig Wallace said “it's still early days”, which suggests they don't have many customers yet. From what I've used I like TotalTalk's simple set-up process and their customer service people are awfully accomodating.
The company's decision to position it at the high end is puzzling given consumers see Internet telephony as a low-price product. It will be interesting to see how AOL Canada's parent, Time-Warner Inc., prices Internet telephony when it launches in the U.S. Does it follow Vonage and CallVantage into discount territory or go premium like Comcast?
According to Light Reading, AOL's roll-out may be March 16. Light Reading reports AOL's telephony service will use Level 3's network, which is also providing service to Skype.