Cable Companies: We'll Kill VoIP

Cable companies in the U.S. and Canada may be moving to squash one of the biggest threats to their future expansion --- VoIP. A Canadian cable company is already charging customers a premium for using competing VoIP products, and users are complaining that Comcast is purposely degrading the quality of Vonage connections. Canada's Shaw Communications offers its own VoIP service, and it charges anyone who uses a competing service a $10 "packet prioritization" fee for Quality of Service enhancements. To many, including me, this seems clearly targeted at squashing competition.

In response, Vonage has filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio and Television Commission. The commission is still considering the complaint. You can bet that U.S. cable providers are watching this one closely.

But there are some who believe that the U.S. cable giant Comcast is already taking action against VoIP competition, albeit in an underhanded way.

On the independent Vonage VoIP Forum (not associated with Vonage), countless people have complained that Comcast is purposely degrading the quality of their VoIP connections in order to steal customers for its VoIP service.

Comcast denies this, of course.I don't know the truth of the allegation. But I do know that what Shaw is doing in Canada is wrong, and that if it gets away with it, cable companies may pursue an all-out assault on VoIP competition.