Complain about a product or service

SunRocket Fizzles

2nd-Largest Internet Phone Provider Folds

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com

July 17, 2007
SunRocket, one of the larger Internet phone providers, has ceased operations and is moving its 200,000 subscribers to another company.

The company announced yesterday that it was closing forever.

"We have just been informed that any and all last ditch efforts to keep operations running as well as a potential sale of the company have not gone through and that SunRocket will cease operations at COB today," said an email from Sonya Jefferson, a SunRocket executive. "As such, today is my last day and everyone else you may have worked with at SunRocket."

The company, based in Vienna, Va., was founded in 2004 and was one of the pioneers in the field of Internet telephony, commonly called VoIP. But like Vonage, the largest stand-alone VoIP provider, it had a difficult time competing against the massive telephone and cable companies that offer a broad range of services.

In the company's home turf, the Washington, D.C. suburbs, Verizon and cable providers Cox and Comcast, are locked in an all-out war to provide "triple-play" service -- telephone, cable TV and high-speed Internet -- to home and business customes. Similar cutthroat competition is raging in most metro areas.

By "bundling" all three services, the larger players are able to offer discounted prices that greatly lessen the appeal of Internet telephone services. SunRocket's latest promotion offered a year of unlimited calling to the United States, Canada and Puerto Rick for $199.

Consumers have been slow to accept VoIP services, at least partly because of the problems they encounter trying to get their numbers transferred and complete the initial set-up.

"I signed up for Sunrocket service in January 2006, and today it is February 2007. I only hooked up my Gismo, their VOIP device, last month. I have been waiting for Sunrocket to transfer my number for a year," Eric of Moorpark, Calif., said in a complaint to ConsumerAffairs.com in February. "I have retained the emails sent to them asking for help. Anyway, as of today Sunrocket has told me that they do not give credits of any kind and that I am out of luck."

James of Mt. Shasta, Calif., had a similar experience.

"After spending many hours on the phone with SunRocket support and never being able to get the SunRocket system to work, I canceled. I received a conformation of cancellation via e-mail. Well they only canceled half of the service and continued to bill me," he said.

Most analysts ranked SunRocket as the second-largest Internet telephone provider. Its 200,000 customers gave it about a 2 percent market share.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.