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RING IN A NEW ERA Voice over Internet Protocol calling service launched locally J
SunRocket launch in Fredericksburg area signals steady rise in Internet telephone service use that's expected to keep picking up speed
Date published: 5/27/2006
By MICHAEL ZITZ
OYCE DORRIS knows the big-time, high-stakes telecommunications industry.
She helped brainstorm the 800/COLLECT, "The Neighborhood" and 10-10-220 marketing concepts at MCI.
But she's no out-of-touch, limo-riding, latte-sipping, Madison Avenue executive.
She knows small-town life, too.
The Vienna resident has family in Fredericksburg, visits the area, and understands the mix of commuters and country people here.
And she's convinced SunRocket, the fledgling broadband telephone company she co-founded with Paul Erickson that recently launched in the Fredericksburg-area market, will fly high, even with suburban moms and rural grandmas who may be distrustful of new technology.
The service, Voice over Internet Protocol, uses a Web connection, a PC or laptop, and wireless handsets to replace land-line phones as a vehicle for voice communication.
"We know it's true that wives are sometimes not as eager to adopt new technology as their husbands are," she said.
They often are reluctant to let go of their land lines, she said.
They tend to be more practical and less tempted to jump on the tech bandwagon for every new gadget, she acknowledged.
And she said she knows some feel safer with land lines because they are concerned about being able to call for help during power outages.
She understands all that, she said.
But she thinks she knows how to persuade them.
SunRocket is going after Internet telephony newbies with "no-gotcha" marketing.
And it hopes to win over doubters gradually by supplementing land-line service.
It offers the nation's only annual, all-inclusive home phone service for $199. That's less than $17 a month for unlimited local and long distance, free international minutes and over a dozen built-in calling features.
Dorris said another more limited plan designed to let users keep their land line, but slash its cost, will help ease the anxiety of technophobes
The phone marketing guru would indeed seem to be in touch with Sue as well as Sam Suburbanite.
Date published: 5/27/2006
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