Google gears up for a free-phone challenge to BT

The Times (UK) ^ | January 24, 2005 | By Elizabeth Judge, Telecoms Correspondent

[Hank Rearden]

Never heard of Sunrocket, and that's not a link you posted. I found it at sunrocket.com thought - looks like Vonage.

I'm not interested in these services; I get LD anywhere for 2.9 cents/min with onesuite.com and that's all I need.

What I'm looking for is a direct IP link that works like Skype but without the centralized database.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well I screwed that Link up but good.

Sorry.

[KevinDavis]

I have a feeling that the traditional phone companies will be downsizing pretty soon. Look for more layoff notices from Willie Green. I would wish SBC offer the same plan where I could just the line for DSL and offer some Voip service..

[Hank Rearden]

No big deal; it was easy enough to track down.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for your patience...

[angkor]

You probably would have to use their service.

You need a robust directory mechanism with searching capabilities. Then you need to map a stored IP address to some unique identifier in that directory.

Sounds like Google's business, yes?

Heck, the Internet is such a powerful enabler of telephony that its almost trivial to create an IP-to-IP voice connection. Keeping track of a billion virtual mappings (IPs to directory entries to uinique IDs) is another question altogether. And again, that's Google's business.

The more I think about it, the more plausible it seems that Google is aiming to make telephone numbers obsolete, and to replace those with directory-based telephony. That's where the money is.

[angkor]

What I'm looking for is a direct IP link that works like Skype but without the centralized database.

MS Netmeeting allows point-to-point voice.