Just hours before leaving to catch a plane Monday night, Christopher Williamson tried to make a phone call from the office of his Lafayette-based video game company.
Unbeknownst to Williamson, his Internet-based phone provider, SunRocket, had ceased operations. Williamson said he switched from Vonage about five months ago because SunRocket was cheaper and had better sound quality.
“I guess it was too good to be true,” Williamson said Thursday.
SunRocket’s abrupt closure left more than 200,000 customers hanging. Williamson said he paid the company $200 upfront for two years of service.
SunRocket’s collapse shakes confidence in voice over Internet Protocol companies, who have struggled to compete amid growing competition from cable companies that can package voice with video and Internet services, said Joe Laszlo, senior analyst for Jupiter Research.
“There’s likely to be a lot more fallout, at least amongst the secondary players in the market,” Laszlo said.
Vonage is the clear leader among independent Internet phone providers with about 2 million customers.
Denver resident David Akerson said he’s been searching the last couple of days to find a replacement even though his SunRocket phone service still works.
“We’re in the dark,” Akerson said. “We don’t know exactly how long our service is going to continue to go.”
SunRocket said in a statement on its website that it is “in the process of discontinuing its operations as you know it.”
The statement also said two phone providers are offering special pricing to SunRocket customers that migrate to their services.
“Of course, there are other providers and each individual customer can make their own decision as to which carrier they wish to transition to,” SunRocket said in the statement.
Williamson switched his company’s phone service to Englewood-based IP5280, which is waiving its regular $49-per-user activation fee for SunRocket customers. Other companies, such as Vonage, are also offering special deals to SunRocket customers.
But Akerson said he’s wary of switching to another Internet-based phone company.
“I’m a little bit skeptical in the industry that no one is taking these guys over, and skeptical about Vonage and other companies,” he said.
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
