Vonage was ordered to suspend signing up new customers. The VoIP company had lost a case in which Verizon (VZ) had accused it of violating certain patents. The next step was for Verizon to use the judgment to effectively push Vonage out of the business, and, perhaps, out of business altogether.

Vonage and other VoIP operators, especially the big cable companies like Comcast (CMCSA) has been taking landline customers from the traditional phone companies at an alarming rate.

And, now it’s payback time.

Douglas A. McIntyre