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It was bound to happen, the string of positive Vonage stories had to come to an end sooner than later, and the latest is reporting that Vonage is having difficulty getting new customers.

It should come as no surprise that Vonage has been and continues to loss money. They have reported a $6.9 million loss for Q2 2008, which sounds bad until you hear that they had a loss of $23.2 million for the same quarter in the previous year.

Of course with all the money being lost, they have been forced to cut down on advertising, which is only hurting them from moving forward, it almost seems like they are caught in the middle.

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This is almost getting to be a record, we are able to post another bit of news about Vonage that is not bad. It seems, and I can only hope that things are finally on the up and up for the struggling VoIP provider.

The latest information is the announcement of their new CEO, Marc Lefar who came over from AT&T where he was the Chief Marketing Officer. Lefar is replacing the temporary CEO Jeff Citron who will stay on board as a non-executive chairman.

Lets just hope that the combination of a new CEO and the $215 million in financing they recently received will be enough to keep things moving smooth.

Via [mocoNews]

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It seems strange to report something positive about Vonage not once, but now twice in a row. Just yesterday we heard how they were getting some more cash to stay afloat and that we could expect a new CEO soon, and today they have added a new calling plan.

The new plan is dubbed the Vonage Pro and will allow users to use their home number to make or receive calls anywhere they happen to have an Internet connection. The new plan will include a new version of the Vonage SoftPhone client and comes with the same features as the current unlimited residential plan.

Customers will be able to send or receive calls from both their home phone and the SoftPhone and have the caller ID show the home number. In addition they will also be able to make two calls at the same time, meaning someone can make a call from the home phone as well as the VoIP client. The Vonage Pro account will set new users back $34.99 a month, or current unlimited calling customers can upgrade for an extra $10 bucks a month.

According to Vonage’s chief marketing officer Jamie Haenggi they have “already received feedback from beta users that indicates Vonage Pro will be a success, both in the quality of the phone service and the unique features it offers.“

We can only hope that is true, personally I have been a Vonage fan and am pleasantly surprised to see them making a comeback, when for a while it seemed like they were going to be down for the count.

Read [Vonage] Via [Digital Trends]

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After what seemed like an endless supply of bad news for Vonage, they seemingly disappeared for a while and that may have been a good thing. Vonage seems to have dropped off the radar for a while, but the return of news seems to be of the positive form.

An announcement is expected to come early this week naming a new CEO, and in addition Vonage has also announced that they entered into a “commitment letter” to receive some much needed funding. It looks like Silver Point Finance LLC will be offering up as much as $215 million which will help to keep Vonage afloat.

Read [WSJ] Via [Engadget]

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It seems like its been forever since we have posted anything Vonage related aside from patent disputes and personal changes that we almost forgot they were still around.

This latest news however seems to be positive, Vonage and Covad Communications have announced a partnership that will allow Vonage to offer a DSL service. The new offering from Vonage will be a re-branded version of Covad’s DSL service and it will simply be called Vonage Broadband. The service is expected to be available by the end of this year and will offer download speeds of up to either 3.0 or 6.0 Mbps for home or small business customers, no mention of just how much this will set you back.

Read [PR Newswire]

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Without any recent lawsuit news Vonage has managed to stayed out of the headlines for a while. This time its just a few simple personnel changes. First, the Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer Sharon O’Leary will be leaving the company at the end of Q1. Second, Mike Sears has been announced as the new Senior Vice President of Global Service Delivery Operations which puts him in charge of “all customer contacts.“ Hopefully with the lawsuits seemingly behind them and these recent changes they will continue to move forward. I for one would like to see Vonage succeed.

Read [PR Newswire]

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Vonage is upping their activity in the digital phone services market with the introduction of MyVonage which is its strategy to match it’s products to its customers lifestyle, and “support the way they want to communicate.“

“At Vonage, we believe technology, not Telco’s, will drive the future of communications,“ said Jeffrey Citron, Chairman, Chief Strategist, and Interim CEO. “Vonage is more than a new technology for landline replacement. We are dedicated to delivering new solutions that empower the consumer and we envision a day when people can communicate without boundaries; when, where and how they want.“

Included with the MyVonage strategy is V-Portal, which is “a device that assists with installation, helps with basic troubleshooting, and has easy-to-use features.“ “The V-Portal expands upon what customers typically expect from a router, and is the closest thing to having a customer care agent with them in their home.“

The V-Portal is the first Vonage branded product and is based on customer research and feedback. The V-Portal does sound good with its LCD, contact book, group calling and voice activated dialing. It also has a simple and sleek design so should sit nicely amongst your other gadgets, instead of wanting to hide it away like most other routers.

The V-Portal is available to new customers beginning on January 9 through the Vonage website for $9.99 after a $70 instant rebate.

Check out a few more pics…

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Vonage seems to have so many patent disputes it has actually become hard to keep track of them all. We recently saw them settle the latest with AT&T and now have reports of them settling with Nortel.

The dispute with Nortel was involving patents dealing with 911 calls, 411 calls and click-to-call technology and originated from a lawsuit filed by Digital Packet Licensing back in 2004. It was settled without any payment or damages required to be payed.

“This is the last of them and we’re quite happy to put it behind us,“ Vonage spokesman Charles Sahner said.

With this settlement coming just in time before the years end, maybe they can go into 2008 with a fresh start considering all the trouble is now behind them.

Via [Reuters]

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Hopefully this will be the final settlement that we see Vonage having to payout, because at this point it seems endless and its a wonder they have anything left to still operate. The recent Vonage settlement with AT&T over the packet-based telephone system that allows “voice conversations to be carried over the Internet” was just settled. Originally the details of the settlement were not disclosed however PC World is reporting that it was for an approximate $39 million, other terms still have not been disclosed.

Read [Consumerist]

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Vonage and AT&T have reached a settlement in the latest dispute that was over a technology called packet-based telephone system that allows “voice conversations to be carried over the Internet.“

Vonage has had a long string of trouble dating back to May 2006 and have settled many cases with companies to include Sprint Nextel and Verizon. The settlement details were not disclosed in this case, although it was originally decided back in early November and just finalized on December 21, 2007.

Read [Reuters]

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