Synchronicity

So today, Om Malik cites a Yahoo Finance story that Verizon is offering naked DSL, and Aswath Rao cites a Russell Shaw blog entry about how Verizon's iobi service could be a VoIP killer.

How could Verizon really kill VoIP? How about an incentive to Verizon DSL customers: Keep your telephone service, and we'll give you unlimited local and LD, plus iobi Home, for $19.95/month. E911, line power, five-nines reliability, and use of your existing home wiring, for five bucks a month cheaper than Vonage - with all the nifty features you get from Vonage except portability and a non-local DN.

The only advantage that would leave Vonage is the regulatory arbitrage of avoiding all the add-on fees (911 surcharges, USF, etc.). And as has been shown in the past (see ISP-CLECs and reciprocal compensation), regulatory arbitrage is not a sustainable long-term business model.