VoIP Provider SunRocket Flares Out

Folks familiar with the myth of Icarus may not be too surprised: VoIP provider SunRocket has apparently shut down without any warning to its customers.

You know what they say about folks who fly to close to the sun: they get burned and crash back to earth.

VoIP phone service provider SunRocket, which claimed to have more than 200,000 subscribers in April of this year, has apparently ceased operations without warning, leaving its users in a lurch. The shutdown follows reports that the company abruptly laid off nearly 200 employees at its Springfield, Missouri call center on Monday; those dismissals follow the firings of its CTO and CIO, the resignation of the company’s chief financial officer on July 2, and substantial employee layoffs on July 3.

SunRocket’s 200,000 VoIP customers may not seem like a large number by telco standards—or the nearly 200 million users claimed by Skype—but the company was second only to Vonage in terms of its total number of subscribers amongst VoIP-only companies. And although SunRocket had experienced service disruptions and temporary outages in the past, the firm had been in business since 1994, giving it a track record longer than many leading technology companies.

SunRocket charged its customers $199 per year for VoIP service; as yet, there is no word on whether customers can expect refunds for service they have not received (and apparently never will). The Assocatied Press is reporting that Sherwood Partners, LLC—a well-known "undertaker" for failed companies—is handling SunRocket’s liquidation.