In the latest, weirdest twist to the crazy trading in Vonage (VG), there apparently are rumors that the company could be acquired by AT&T (T). That just might be the dumbest rumor I’ve ever heard.

For starters, AT&T a few years ago started its own voice over IP service called CallVantage–but quietly shut down the service earlier this year. True, AT&T and other telcos have been seeing a rapid fall in their residential land lines. But that has more to do with people substituting wireless phones for landlines than it does with the invasion of voice over IP services.

Auriga USA analyst Chandan Sarkar this morning took a look at the theoretical combination, and finds the concept lacking.

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Is anyone still bothering to pay attention to Vonage (VG)?

It doesn’t look like it. The voice-over IP phone company today posted Q4 revenue of $222 million, up three percent from a year ago. Vonage lost 26 cents a share in the quarter, but noted that it posted an operating profit of $2.8 million, its first quarter ever that far in the black. However, Vonage lost a net 14,700 subscribers, to finish with 2.6 million lines in service.

Wait, wasn’t VoIP supposed the change the world and cripple the Bells? Well, it certainly has made a dent, but the damage is being done largely by the cable companies, rather than Vonage.

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When AT&T (T) grudgingly agreed to break itself up 25 years ago, it was seen as a truly momentous event in the history of the telecommunications industry. Today, however, some experts question not only whether the breakup of AT&T was necessary, but whether it even had any long-term impact on the telecom market.

The breakup deal forced AT&T to spin off its local divisions that would then become local exchange carriers, and in return, AT&T was allowed to keep its long distance services division.

However, the rise of wireless services as alternatives to landlines, as well as the entrance of cable companies such as Comcast (CMCSA) and Time-Warner (TWX) into the VoIP market, has led some to conclude that the breakup of Ma Bell is irrelevant to the current telecom market.

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Scott Goldman uses his mobile phone to call friends and business contacts all over the world, from Britain to Australia. But the Southern California-based consultant doesn’t pay a dime in international tolls to his mobile-phone carrier, AT&T, the biggest in the U.S. Instead, Goldman places the international portion of the calls–roughly 100 minutes a month–through a service called Gorilla Mobile that relies on Internet-based technology to route wireless calls virtually toll-free. Goldman, a user of Apple’s iPhone, estimates that he saves hundreds of dollars a year with Gorilla’s service. He stands to cut wireless bills even more by signing up for another, iCall, that’s due for the iPhone in the coming weeks

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Like many Americans today, the economy is currently using me as its punching bag. So, I’ve decided to take a hard look at my monthly expenses and lop off anything I think I can live without–a financial amputation before gangrene sets in, if you’ll permit the metaphor. First in the crosshairs is my landline; I’m wondering if I can completely replace it with the much heralded and much cheaper Internet-based phone service, Skype.

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Like millions of other Americans and many of New York City’s “bridge and tunnel” crowd, I live in the ‘burbs. While I do a great deal of travel for my full-time job, I am also classified as a “mobile” employee, so I’m not formally attached to an office–I’ve been issued a company laptop and they pay my monthly broadband, cellular and phone bills, which are in the form of an AT&T (T) Callvantage VOIP account.

Currently, I’m a cable modem subscriber. I pay approximately $65 per month for Optimum Online’s boost plan, which gives you up to 5Mbps/30Mbps in theoretical upstream and downstream bandwidth. In practice, however, I’ve become accustomed to a number of service interruptions, where my broadband can go down for hours at a time, and days where the local XBOX kiddies and torrenters are clearly over-saturating the network. But I tolerate this because I have very few options for broadband in my immediate area.

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Choosing a smartphone reminds me of the old adage from product-design people: “Good, fast, cheap: Pick two.” Much more so than a personal computer, a smartphone is an exercise in compromise.

This will continue to be obvious even after Apple (AAPL) announces “iPhone 2.0″ at this week’s conference for Macintosh and iPhone software developers. This new device, of course, is the updated version of the path-breaking model that was launched a year ago amid a blizzard of hype.

I continue to be an iSkeptic of sorts. I don’t own an iPhone, and even if all the rumored new features appear they probably won’t be enough to overcome Apple’s still-unfortunate choice of AT&T (T) as its telecom carrier partner.

True, no other device does exactly what the iPhone does. Conversely, the iPhone doesn’t come close to matching the most valuable features of the devices I do use, namely Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry Curve and Nokia (NOK) N95. Let’s look at each to see why.

My primary device is the BlackBerry, for two major reasons. First, using T-Mobile’s clever UMA technology, which does a voice hand-off from cell to WiFi–something that works on several T-Mobile handsets, but not the BlackBerry Curve on other networks–I can use the phone (and save cell minutes and money) using voice over IP. This is especially helpful at home where the cell signal is weak, but also helpful given that it works with just about any WiFi network. AT&T hasn’t built UMA into its own network, and Apple’s first iPhone did not permit VoIP in any case.

Just as important, the BlackBerry’s physical keyboard–small keys that are nonetheless accurate and have a nice tactile response–makes it a mostly excellent email tool.

Mostly, but not completely–because BlackBerry’s email capabilities are designed around Microsoft Exchange. I do use Exchange for one email account, but IMAP on several others. And the BlackBerry has no IMAP client software that even understands how to flag a message as having been replied to, much less an understanding of folders.

I would pay good money for a solid IMAP client for the BlackBerry, but no one seems to care enough to create one. I suspect there’s a serious market for the first company that does this.

If the iPhone had a tolerable keyboard–and I find the virtual, screen-bound keypad nearly useless–it would be a vastly better email device than the BlackBerry, especially because it absolutely gets IMAP and is about to work with Exchange servers.

The iPhone’s camera is roughly equivalent to the one on the Curve: inadequate at best, with relatively low resolution and no video mode. Nokia’s N95, by contrast , is a great camera, with a 5 megapixel still resolution and 30-frame-per-second VGA video recording and playback.

I can “tether” the N95 to my laptop and use it as a modem; no such common-sense usage with the iPhone. The N95 also has WiFi (and handles VoIP) and 3G, invaluable for international travel; strong rumors say the iPhone will remedy the 3G situation in the new version.In fact, the N95 has almost too many high-end features, a key reason it has especially poor battery life. GPS is another N95 advantage; again, there are strong indications that the iPhone will also have it–and the large screen on the Apple device makes maps a joy to use and view.

I do love the iPhone as a media playback device, however. That’s why I bought an iPod Touch, which is roughly the same size and has become my portable media system of choice, especially on airplanes. And when it comes to Web browsing, it’s absolutely no contest: The iPhone blows away the Blackberry and N95.

Apple raised the bar in a serious way when it comes to software. While Nokia’s operating system has been much more open than the iPhone’s (or BlackBerry’s)–something Apple has halfway remedied with its semi-open new development model–Nokia has a long way to go to get even close to Apple in basic usability. The BlackBerry is quite easy to use, but still far behind Apple in many respects.

Will I buy an iPhone when the new models hit the stores? I still don’t know. Apple’s insistence that legitimate software will only be available through its online store is part of the company’s typical arrogance. And its continued lock-in with AT&T is close to a deal-killer no matter how good the device may be.

Of course, you can “jailbreak” even the current iPhones. And it’s looking as though the new ones will be even more malleable, at least theoretically.

No matter what Apple introduces, the compromises will continue, however. But the time is almost in sight when we’ll have just about everything we want–not just what we absolutely need–in our handhelds. Not real soon now, but sooner than we might expect.

It should come as no surprise: Incumbents are beginning to act like incumbents. But while the cable companies are the first ones to jump on the tiered-broadband bandwagon, they won’t be the last. Their argument for limiting bandwidth and data transfers based on price sounds like a good idea, especially as a way to get bargain hunters to buy. In the long run, however, tiered broadband is a terrible idea that will bring the innovation inspired by flat-rate broadband to a screeching halt.

Flat-rate broadband–however cheap or expensive (depending on your point of view) it might be–inspired the formation of Skype, YouTube, Facebook, Apple’s iTunes and MySpace, amongst others. It allowed us to freely experiment, to embrace both the applications and the ideas they represented, such as VoIP, online video, digital downloads and social networking.

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AT&T, in conjunction with some 10 to 15 incumbent telecom carriers–British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and NTT among them–is plotting to launch a Skype competitor, according to a research report issued by ThinkEquity analyst Anton Wahlman. This is Wahlman’s theory for now, but his track record is full of theories that have eventually been proven right.

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VOIP insiders have recently started talking about taking a platform approach to the convergence of Web and voice, an approach for which start-up Ribbit is offering perhaps the most audacious (and equally risky) strategy.

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