Sun Rocket, the so-called no-hassle $199 a year flat rate VoIP service is all set to go national next week, according to company officials. The company plans to add 50 more metro markets to its three current regions – Washington DC, Boston and Baltimore. The new market would cover about half the US population. In case you were looking for the much wanted 212 area code, well starting December 25 you could snag one from Sun Rocket. (I would be hustling from one given that I am a life long New Yorker at heart.)

“Next year our goal is to cover 300 markets,” says Paul Erickson, chief executive and co-founder of the company. The company us currently using Global Crossing and Broadwing (via their Focal Communications’ acquisition) to serve these markets. There is a third connectivity provider, but Sun Rocket refuses to reveal that vendors’ name. If their aggressive growth plan is any indication, I suspect 2005 is going to see even more brutal price wars in the VoIP space. At present, Vonage is the leader and is growing at a healthy clip. (Vonage has announced that it will start selling its service at CompUSA stores and in addition, it will be using Internap to enhance its services.)

It is being chased by the likes of Primus, Broadvoice, Packet 8, and Sun Rocket along with incumbent carriers like SBC, AT&T, Verizon, Covad, and Qwest. Cable providers like Cable vision, Time Warner Cable and Comcast have become aggressive in recent days, trying to establish an early beachhead in the nascent VoIP market place.