Woo-Hoo! Vonage finds itself a test lab

That's notable, considering that Vonage doesn't make their own equipment.

So what's the deal?

Vonage's service comes with literally dozens of equipment options, from routers and adapters to Vonage-branded portable devices. But as frequent posts to the non-Vonage-operated Vonage Forum tells us, sometimes these devices and set-ups don't play nice with the Vonage service, or each other.

Well maybe Vonage is starting to realize this. Perhaps that is part of the just announced alliance between the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) has the first external testing facility to pre-screen Internet telephony devices for Vonage compatibility.

Here's how this will work. Vonage vendor partners will ship test-products to the UNH-IOL for analysis of their calling abilities as well as their interoperability with the multi-vendor Vonage network. Once tested at UNH-IOL, the equipment will be tested in the carrier’s own lab.

What are Vonage's expectations? 

“The UNH-IOL is a well-respected test house with a strong reputation for objectivity and a high degree of technical expertise,” said Daniel Smires, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Vonage. “We’re leveraging that expertise to safeguard network interoperability and to deliver the best possible services to our customers.”

“It’s a given that most customers taking the plunge into VoIP have little patience for anything but toll-quality calls and constant uptime, so customer-focused service providers like Vonage have little margin for error,” Lavoie said in a press release. "This test suite has been developed in the practically universal interest of quality, interoperable products."

Hey did you catch that? "Practically universal interest." 

What I'd really like ol' Linc' to spell out would be who doesn't care abut quality.

Or is it interoperable products that don't have that universal buy-in Linc is referencing?