So, the other day my wife says to me, “did you hear that radio ad from AT&T that disses VoIP services?”

And I said, “nope, haven’t heard it yet.” Then, on the six+ hour drive home from northern lower Michigan where I was camping this weekend, I heard the ad. I believe it was on an FM station called “Joe FM”.

The ad was nothing short of dirty. It features actors playing the roles of “real people” who switched back to landline service from VoIP after discovering how “awful” it was.

The ad seemed squarely aimed at Vonage, saying that users who switch to Vonage won’t be able to use their alarm systems or answer the phone when the power goes out. Sure, these things are true. But don’t people already know this stuff? I have NEVER, and I mean NEVER, met anybody who bought into VoIP service without acknowledging that it doesn’t provide power, doesn’t work with FAX machines, and doesn’t work with all alarm systems.

And I keep coming back to this idea of innovation. Why doesn’t the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (AT&T) get off their collective bottoms and turn AT&T CallVantage (the service they won’t acknowledge in their radio ad) into the REAL DEAL–why don’t they invest in one of the several broadband alarm companies? Why don’t they invest in fax-to-email services like e-Fax? Surely, they’d profit more than they will by continually dumping huge ad buys on well-produced-but-pathetic radio advertisements…