Call Block please

Posts: 13 · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 10:48 am Post subject: Call Block please

There has been numerous Vonage people asking for CALL BLOCK which has fallen on deaf ears it seems.

Why ? It's been a local company offering for 10 20 years.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:33 pm Post subject:

This is a very good question as it is a feature in high demand. However, what you must take into consideration is the legalities of creating a feature that is already offered by someone else. Everyone who reads the news and follows business recently saw the lawsuits visual voicemail notifications against many providers. Prior to that, Vonage had to face the Verizon and Sprint lawsuits for bogus patent infringements while other service providers with deeper pockets were able to beat it.

It is easy to sit back and demand a feature request from the confines of your comfort zone with no risk to you. While it is a good idea and Vonage would love to be able to meet each demand for these types of requests, they must be well evaluated and run through legal channels where patents are investigated very deeply. Once this has been completed, a development team can assess the best way to build a feature without stepping on someone's patent. Even at this point, there could still be a lawsuit by someone who is just fishing for cash or looking to shut down an innovator of a disruptive technology such as Vonage.

This is a feature that will be released in the future but it will just take time for everything else to be sorted out and other priorities to be met.

Posts: 13 · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:32 pm Post subject:

But this was asked about over a year ago and there has been no update about it.

Vonage might be having legal issues and some of those might have been in the news but we are no mind readers here. We have no idea what is affected, feature wise, by which lawsuit that is brought to court.

I get constant harassing calls simply from the type of business I have and not having a Vonage feature that is offered by the local land-line company here really has me wanting to drop Vonage and go back to my local phone company. That's right, I am on the verge of dropping Vonage over 1 feature that could reduce my stress levels at work.

BTW call block is offered by not just local companies but also most cell companies so I fail to see where call block would or could be hampered by any legal issues. Sure if it was offered by only one local company I could see this but it's offered everyplace but Vonage.

Posts: 352 · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:03 pm Post subject:

If everyone else has it, why are you not with them instead?
Everyone demands MORE (but of course you don't want to pay any more). I am EXTREMELY happy with Vonage as it is. I am saving $30 per month over what I was paying before.
Vonage has caller ID. Just don't answer the phone if it is not someone you want to talk to.

Posts: 13 · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:21 pm Post subject:

kdf55 wrote:

If everyone else has it, why are you not with them instead?
Everyone demands MORE (but of course you don't want to pay any more). I am EXTREMELY happy with Vonage as it is. I am saving $30 per month over what I was paying before.
Vonage has caller ID. Just don't answer the phone if it is not someone you want to talk to.

Don't reply with this sort of answer, it's kiddie and I never implied anything you mentioned did I ? So don't add words into my comments.

This is neither a money issue or a demanding issue. It's a inquiry into the reason why call block has not been added plain and simple.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:52 am Post subject:

Your failing to see the point. Vonage is a target because it has been the company that stole the customers away from the big boys. Voip has been offered for years now and by many companies. Verizon only decided to go after Vonage once they reached 2 million customers and went public. Same with Sprint. They waited until Vonage was big enough to go after them while they were using the same technology since 2001. Since Vonage can be used in any of these major telcom's territory, it is a threat therefore a target.

Verizon, SBC, AT&T, Bell each have their own customers in their own areas and people cannot jump ship to go to the other. While one of them may have the patent for caller ID block, they wont go after the others because they are not losing customers to them as they are not direct competition. They also don't go after the small, non publicly traded Voip companies as they are a minimal risk to their business. It is not about money anymore. It is about disrupting someone else's business model.

So mark my words. If Vonage was to release caller ID block tomorrow or any other feature that is similar to something others already have, someone will cry Patent Infringement and Vonage will land in court again. If Vonage then loses, it opens the door to start lawsuits against the others. The Ma Bell companies would love to see nothing more then for Vonage and other Voip service to go out of business so that they can be a monopoly once again. And then they could raise their prices since there was no choice, no competition in the market place.

All I am saying is that there is much more to think about from a business point of view then just developing features and putting them out there at this point in time.

Posts: 13 · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:32 pm Post subject:

Posts: 81 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Sep 26, 2008 Posts: 81

Panasonic Dect 6.0 phones have this capability built inside to my understanding.

Posts: 13 · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:20 pm Post subject:

Thanks I'll check around for this type of phone then.

Posts: 433 · Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:27 pm Post subject:

Correct me if I am incorrect.. Call Block, Caller ID Block, Name Block.. is a generic telephone option. Claiming the "Big Boys" have it and would sue is like saying Ford should sue GM out of business.

Ford would say, "We had automobiles first and you cant."

Am I missing something?