An anonymous administrator of Vonage Forum, the independent discussion board where gripes were aired, reports that Vonage claims to have resolved the issue this morning, but users continue to report problems.

So why isn't the blogosphere taking notice as it did for the recent Skype outage? Despite Vonage's attempt to stay relevant with heavy advertising, the only ones who seem to care about the failing company are the numerous telephone carriers suing the company into the ground for patent infringement — and the suckers who bought into Vonage's late night television pitch.

Virgin Mobile, unlike the big carriers, rents a wireless network rather than owning one, essentially gussying up and reselling Sprint's service under its own name. It's a challenging business model, known in the trade as being a "mobile virtual network operator" or "MVNO." Disney and Amp'd, among others, have failed to make a go of it.

Renting one's network means lower capital costs, and according to the Wall Street Journal, Virgin has 4.83 million subscribers and actually made a small profit this year. Virgin Mobile has plenty of revenue, but with a flat IPO today and loads of debt, it is unclear if it can make itself into a viable company.

Disney Mobile shut down last month and Amp'd burned through hundreds of millions of dollars with nothing to show for it. History does not look good for Virgin, but with strong name recognition among their target market and clever advertising, we don't put it past Sir Richard to succeed where others have failed.

(Photo by AP/Jacques Brinon)

It's currently in the midst of another lawsuit accusing the company of stealing and soliciting the customer base of the now defunct Internet phone service SunRocket, after negotiations to purchase SunRocket's subscriber base and other assets fell apart.

And now Vonage is hoping to attract new customers by rolling out a copycat version of the iPhone's helpful "visual voicemail" feature, which displays voicemails in a list rather than forcing subscribers to dial into a voicemail box. Vonage's version supposedly does Apple one better by actually translating the voicemails from voice to text. Unfortunately, it works about as well as the handwriting recognition did on Apple's Newton handheld. Allen Stern of CenterNetworks tested out the system. An invitation to lunch was translated as follows:

Hey. Elements bonds a chair and it's Oh new time on Wednesday.

Vonage Holdings Corp. said customers have refused to pay for more than one million shares that they had signed up to buy in the Internet calling company's initial public offering in May.

Those million shares were worth $17.25 million when Vonage offered them in May, but the tanking stock now makes them worth less than $7 million. Meanwhile, Vonage just told the SEC that it doesn't plan to make a profit this year.

Vonage regrets not following its original plan, which was to sell customers a bucket of brine shrimp labeled "Sea Monkeys."

Vonage Customers Withhold Payment For IPO Shares [WSJ]

Vonage has gone and shopped itself around in the middle of its IPO process. Two months after filing to go public, rumors are flying that the VoIP provider, still in the red, is looking to get bought.

The real problem with Surf 'n' Turf is finishing it off. You don't want that smug waiter asking, "Shall I get you a doggie bag?" What could leave Vonage stuffed and red-faced, failing to pull off either the IPO or the buyout? Well, every layer of the VoIP game is getting crowded as a phone booth, the telecoms are fighting back with extra charges, and India's already dealing with pirate VoIP providers.

But hey, I'm sure they'll get by on their stellar customer service reputation.

V is for Vonage...T is for Takeover [CNN Money]