Paul Kapustka's Blog

And hey! I'm not even on a Vonage advisory board, so you know my opinion is heartfelt.

Is it OK to be skeptical of Vonage as an investment or a business? Yes, because that is part of our job. But do we have to be nasty?

Maybe those who feel free to toss around the word that's the opposite of "blow" should have spent some time Tuesday watching my man Jeff stick up for the VoIP and independent-operator industry at large in front of the U.S. Senate. The new beast known as Google should thank Citron (maybe with a business deal?) for bailing out Vint Cerf, a monumentally intelligent man who was out of sorts talking to polished hams like Sen. Ted Stevens.

Jeff may have a vested interest in the outcome of the Net Neutrality fight, but at least he's got some skin in the game. Where, I ask, is Mr. $4 billion in this fight? Still hiding in some undisclosed European location? Or behind some faulty teleconferencing software?

And, do we really need to belabor the obvious, like saying "gosh, Vonage better really really execute well." Hmmm. Good advice for any number of businesses, no?

What do I think? I think that trying to predict how the public markets may or may not accept Vonage is a fool's endeavor. Dig deep into the S-1, sure, let's get all the facts out there. But let's also not forget that Vonage is taking all the arrows from two deeply fortressed foes, and still signing up people who just want to use the phone for less.

Community building? Perhaps not. But is calling people on the phone likely to be a business for the near future? Perhaps.

UPDATE -- Fri., 2/10: More Vonage smackdown, this time from the erudite Martin Geddes. Hey, he told us so!