The future of stand-alone VoIP was brought to everyone's attention last month, when the number 2 stand-alone broadband phone company in the nation, SunRocket, went out

of business. While there were signs that they were in financial trouble when they laid off workers the previous month, it came as quite a shock to most of the telecom world to

wake up one morning and hear that they had just locked their doors and walked away.

The first thought that comes to mind is, "Will Vonage be next"? Vonage is still losing money hand over fist, which has caused their stock prices to crash. And, since their cost of customer acquisition is still more than they make off of a customer in a whole year, it stands to reason that they aren't going to make it either. And, if they don't, thousands of small investors are going to end up getting hurt, just like when Enron went belly up.

The only bright spot right now in the stand-alone broadband phone market, is Packet8. Packet8 actually posted a profit last quarter, making it the first stand-alone broadband phone company to

do so. It looks like they did it by concentrating on business customers and value added product upgrades. By going after business broadband phone customers, who usually pay at least

twice what residential broadband telephone users do, they lowered their cost of customer accusation to the point where they can now make money.

While the large cable and telephone companies are easily making money adding VoIP to their lineup of other services, small broadband phone companies are going to need to follow

Packet8's lead and find a niche where they can add enough value to their broadband phone services to create a viable long term business. I hope most of the stand-alone VoIP's, like

Vonage, make it, if not for their investors, at least to keep the cable and telecom companies on their toes by keeping the market competitive.