Gmail Calling Stays Free Through 2012 | PCWorld

Wonderful, useful, and Google Voice remains FREE for another year! I love it.

"...The main difference between Gmail and Skype is that Google allows users to call mobile phones and landlines for free, whereas Skype only allows free calls to other Skype accounts. Skype, however, offers mobile apps for calling other users. Google doesn't offer any free voice calling on mobile phones. Both services charge for international calls...."

Google Mobility and Cloud Focus

It's clear that Google's strategy is to leverage cloud computing and communications, particularly wireless emphasizing mobility. The launch of the Android OS, the NexusOne phone, its acquisition of Gizmo5, the Chrome browser and OS all point in this direction. Google Voice has the potential to be a killer app, particularly for small businesses. Coupled with Google Apps, all these platforms and devices spell long term trouble for Microsoft.

"...One not so discrete launch will be an enterprise version of the Google Voice phone management application for businesses.

Google Voice, used by more than 1.4 million users in the U.S., routes calls to users' home, work and mobile phones using a special number assigned by Google.

The free app doesn't currently connect calls from one PC to another, or between PCs and phones, or phones and phones. However, Google acquired Gizmo5, whose softphone technology works like the popular Skype VOIP app, connecting calls from PCs to PCs and from PCs to phones. Google plans to add these direct calling capabilities to Google Voice..."

AT&T Says Google Voice Violates Net Neutrality Principles - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

AT&T Says Google Voice Violates Net Neutrality Principles - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Here's the real issue (Follow the Money!):

"Whether AT&T is right depends on all sorts of technical interpretations of the commission’s policies and which regulations actually apply to Google Voice, which is a technological patchwork of telephone calling and Internet communication.

But that really isn’t AT&T’s primary concern. The company is mainly trying to score some debating points and show that sometimes companies have good reason to treat some uses of their networks differently than others. (If you do want to get into the policy minutiae, start with this post from the public-interest telecom lawyer Harold Feld .)

What AT&T and Google agree on is that the system for exchanging payments between phone companies for completing long-distance calls is deeply flawed. I looked into this last year, when Kevin Martin, then the F.C.C. chairman, wanted to reform what is called intercarrier compensation. After a week trying to understand those rules, I ran away screaming. Our long-distance system is so topsy-turvy that it makes the Mad Hatter’s tea party look like drill time at West Point."

And the struggle continues...

The lines between content, software, telecommunications services within the framework of laws and regulations continue to blur as the Internet protocols and applications become more pervasive. The issues are really important because decisions or lack of them at the FCC threaten carrier business models that have been crafted on the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the various definitions and rulings about interconnection compensation rules, subsidies (Universal Service Fund, etc.), enhanced services, and pending issues like net neutrality and others, how/if wireless carriers should be regulated, et al.

Technology marches inexorably forward as very smart people build tools and applications that have great consumer and business appeal which often threaten to upset the carefully honed business models of the telecommunications carriers.

Google and its spawn loom like a cloud over these carriers. Is it any surprise that no significant deals or partnerships have been wrought between them and Google? The big carriers , e.g., AT&T and Verizon, likely see Google as only a step away from munching their lunch, just as the newspapers believe that Google has eaten theirs by sucking away lucrative advertising dollars.

And because Google is widely seen as being very close to TeamObama by virtue of the warm relationship between CEO Eric Schmidt and President Obama, the carriers are concerned that future regulatory and legal decisions in this arena are more likely to favor Google's positions over their own.

Google Voice

I finally received my long-awaited invitation for Google Voice. Yesterday, I chose my number and have been quietly playing with it to better understand the ins and outs from a personal perspective. I have linked my home phone and cell phone to it.

It's powerful and easy to use. So far I have set up my voicemail, sent SMS messages from the browser interface, made a local call (they are free). I will soon test the voicemail transcription feature and then move to more sophisticated functions.

The feature set is strongest for inbound calls to the new number, which I intend to distribute on my next batch of business cards. I am reluctant to display it on my blog because I don't want a bunch of junk phone calls.

The uptake may be slow, but the phone companies should be worried in that Google is inserting itself at the top of the phone pyramid...and it's tough to beat free and very inexpensive overseas calling.