200,000 people have been without home-phone service (including 911 emergency services) over the last day and a half to two days, as SunRocket VoIP service has silently gone out of business. Two days ago, the company fired all but a handful of employees, and stopped providing service to it’s subscribers, as they scramble to find another service to transfer all of their customers to. No warning was apparently given to subscribers or stockholders.
SunRocket was the second largest (but also one of the cheapest, with plans starting under US$10/month) of the VoIP start-ups. It’s also the first to just drop silently out of the race, leaving it’s customers high and dry (and more than a little angry in some cases).
Experts tell us that more of these VoIP companies will start to fail in this way in the coming months and years, leaving one to wonder what kind of legal precedent might be set by this drastic loss of a service which most people see as a necessity in our society.
Having a home phone company go out of business over night is a new experience for everyone involved.
More information can be found: Here.