Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has been developing services and purchasing companies to provide free and inexpensive feature-rich telephone services for consumers and small businesses.
With Gizmo5, Google adds a public switched telephone network (PSTN) component to its other VoIP-related ventures. Gizmo5's services not only work peer-to-peer, connecting computers and cellular phones, but also can integrate with the PSTN for calls to non-VoIP devices.
The service offers free peer-to-peer calls to other Gizmo5-enabled devices as well as SIP devices. With PSTN connections, calls to landline and cellular phones are inexpensive, although cellular is more expensive. If you're geeky, however, you can make free phone calls with just a cellular connection.
With Google Voice, you select a phone number, which is supposed to be your one phone number for life. Calls to that number are forwarded to other devices that have a phone number, such as business and personal landline and cellular phones, which can take advantage of numerous Google Voice capabilities.
Users may request that a first-time caller speaks his/her name to Google Voice, which the user then secretly hears, deciding whether to answer the call, forward to voice mail, or hang up. Some or all callers can be automatically forwarded to voice mail. Users can establish groups of contacts that hear specific voice-mail greetings.
Also, users may listen as callers leave voice-mail messages and answer the call during the message -- just as you could do decades ago with tape-based answering machines. In addition, Google Voice will automatically transcribe voice mail, with the results ranging from accurate to hilarious. The transcriptions are saved online, and users may search them as well as add notes. In addition, Google Voice numbers may be used for SMS and for establishing conference calls.
Another Google service, Google Talk, enables computer-to-computer VoIP conversations and lets users leave voice mails for network contacts and engage in instant messaging.
Google's announcement about Gizmo5 provided no details, but I assume Gizmo-to-Gizmo and Gizmo-to-SIP calls will remain free. Perhaps even Gizmo-to-landline calls could be free, with text or audio advertising. If you choose to view or listen to ads, perhaps all calls (at least within the United States) could be free.
Google's revenues are based, of course, on advertising. Last week the company announced it will purchaseAdMob, whose platform has transmitted billions of ad impressions to cellphones.
Google hasn't been shy about promoting cellular communications as a huge potential revenue generator and developing its own cellphone advertising. Google has focused on cellphone search ads while AdMob focuses on display ads on Web pages and applications.
When all of these companies and services are integrated, Google could offer tremendously varied VoIP services. Also, these services could be installed as standard on millions of Android phones.
As an early GrandCentral user, I have Google Voice and, so far, it works fine. But I wonder whether Google VoIP services will offer sufficiently reliable service and good customer support.
Ever since AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) discontinued its CallVantage service -- which I consider the gold standard for consumer VoIP -- I've been looking for a VoIP provider charging reasonable, flat monthly rates for superior audio quality and reliability combined with a wide variety of services. I'd be happy to pay for it, and I'm sure many other individuals and small businesses also would.
I share your ethusiasm for Google Voice Plus (my designation for what Google Voice could become with all the integration) as well as other VoIP companies that make calling cheap or free from a computer or a phone (Skype, Truphone, fring, etc.).
I hope governments understand the value of VoIP for their citizens, although the entrenched telecom interests often are more powerful than the "public interest."
Some techies know how to get around VoIP restrictions -- if it's technologically possible -- but most people haven't any idea.
your assertion on restricting and banning of VOIP in some countries is true. In Ghana. offering of VOIP is restricted to within a network. So there can be no VOIP between different providers, this is so even though very few ISP have the reach to serve more than 3 out of the 10 regions in Ghana.
In Ghana's case therefore the promise of VOIP is restricted to Multinationals and the general population are non the better for it.
However, again, this is where the promise of Google affordable Internet is exciting. Its spread (with just a beam) almost covers Ghana, and so the ISP with access to this is able to deploy VOIP over a significant portion of Ghana, making it more meaningful.
One of the problems for VoIP is some countries either ban it or severely restrict it because governments don't want cheaper VoIP services to compete with government-run telecommunications companies.
Googles efforts are exciting and I hope that it would help bridge the digital divide. This addition is another move in the right direction -- I hope.
I am eagerly awaiting for the launching of their affordable Internet solutions through o3bnetworks. We are excited about getting better and affordable access to Internet across Africa.
Google's management certainly hasn't been shy about discussing -- and promoting -- the advantages of cellular for its business. Eric Schmidt and other company execs have noted how cellphone-based advertising could become an enormous business.
Google does indeed want to manage the world's information -- audio, video and text. Every device that has a browser can have advertisements -- Google advertisements. And, the more Google applications that are on computers and cellular phones, the more opportunities for displaying Google (and AdMob) ads.
Yes, I assume Google is targeting consumers and small businesses -- which are markets most conducive to Google's free/cheap model, with little customer support.
I'm doubtful any middle sized or large corporation will use Google VoIP services, which aren't sufficiently feaure-rich, reliable or secure.
As I wrote, I'm using Google Voice, but I'm still hesitant about its reliability and support.
Yes, Google has loads of fiber, which is a tremendous resource, obviously.
Brian. Re: "But do you think there is end game with Google? Is there a stated business objective (beyond being wholely dominant)?" - I agree with Alan that Google sees cellphone advertising as a big gold mine and it’s probably a key driver surrounding Google wanting to be the next VoIP powerhouse. But I also think if it were only for selling ads, Google could have focused on just the ads technology and worked with traditional carriers or VoIP providers to achieve similar outcomes. Yet, Google’s going through all the troubles in building its VoIP powerhouse, creating more enemies along the way. I think, in a big picture, this all amounts to its core business endeavor, which is to manage all the world info, only now this extends beyond desktops to a newer (and potentially wider) world of smart cellphones and mobile devices.
Google's VoIP offerings; great for small businesses that don't mind software with certain limitations (specifically codec and open-source feature-wise) and of course great for consumers of almost all levels. Not great for carrier-grade companies that require a full SIP-compliant standard that can handle multiple calls, SIP URI routing, T.38 support for faxing, encryption standards (i.e. SIPS/MIKEY/SRTP), full codec capabilities, and support for open source PBX applications such as Asterisk, TrixBox, FreeSwitch, and higher grade solutions like OpenSER.
Then again Google isn't really targetting that market, nor do I believe they understand this niche (and highly profitable) market yet. VoIP resellers/CLECs with solid infrastructure, feature-rich services that are on open-standards whom are flexible and scalable to any environment will still grab the call centres, calling card companies, dating lines, etc.
It should be interesting to see where Google goes with this. It certainly was a smart move on their part to buy up all the dark fibers a few years ago when DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) killed off the expensive wholesale fiber-optic dreams of companies like Nortel.
Good business decisions deserve high praise in the free markets!
This is a very murky issue -- even for lawyers (which I am not!).
Google Voice is, in some ways, a telephone service. But it is not a "common carrier," like traditional phone companies, which are required by law to provide connections to all phone numbers.
It could be construed that Google Voice is promoted as a phone service and, therefore, should be required -- by logic -- to connect all calls. Legally, however, Google Voice might not be required to. Google Voice is a free service, not a common carrier service, and could, I believe, do anything it wanted to, such as blocking calls to specific numbers.
Gizmo5 is as an IP service, which is governed differently than common carrier. However, Gizmo5 users may make calls to landline phones (for a fee), like SkypeOut.
Gizmo is SIP, so, yes, Google could create a gateway to other SIP services.
The bottom line here is the legal definition of what Google's VoIP offerings are and can do will have to be settled by the FCC and, possibly, the courts.
I think Google has a few ways to generate income from VoIP.
1. Subscriptions for non-peer calls. Gizmo5 is free for peer-to-peer, but just like Skype and similar services, Gizmo5 charges for non-peer connections.
2. Advertisements in the cellphone client via AdMob, which serves display ads. Ads certainly could be placed within a Google Talk/Gizmo5 cellular client.
3. Traditional Google text-based ads on the cellphone client.
4. Cheap WiFi -- as a subscription service (or free with Google ads) -- as an offering bundled with VoIP, in partnership with Boingo.
5. Desktop VoIP -- with ads -- in conjunction with Google Chrome OS becoming commercial next year as well as integrated within Gmail, Blogger and Google Apps.
6. Perhaps fees by interconnecting to other phone-based services.
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