Vonage gets squeezed from above-Verizon- and below-AOL

On Wednesday, Verizon announced that it would lower the cost of its VoiceWing service from $34.95 a month to $24.95 a month. That's a tad cheaper than Vonage's most comparable, $24.99 plan. But unlike Vonage VoiceWing's activation will be free.

Then just yesterday, AOL said it would launch AIM Phoneline, a free service that will let AOL Instant Messenger users receive incoming calls from any phone. The service will also come in an AIM Phoneline Unlimited version which will let users call any number in the U.S. as well as in 30 countries for a flat monthly fee of $14.95.

See what I am getting at here?

Verizon is squeezing Vonage from "above"- i.e., as a deep-pocketed provider with enough resources to drive down the pricing game and recruit the type of VoIP customers Vonage needs to cover its massive marketing expenses as well as the confidence level of investors once the their stock goes public.

And AOL is squeezing Vonage from below. Let's see, $14.95 for 30 countries and the U.S., vs. $24.99 for North America and a handful of European destinations? And instant messaging on top of it all?

If I am Vonage, I am wondering what and where my place is.