[aculeus]

Telephone service in Europe and Asia is very expensive. This could be a very smart move by Google.

[cynwoody]

I wonder if there is a connection between this story and this other story on News.com about Google's apparent desire to acquire "dark fiber".

There is really no reason why phone service and internet service should be distinct. Nor is there any reason why a phone call should cost any more than listening to audio clip or viewing a video on the net. There are mainly two pieces missing:

• A directory service to allow users to find each other, no matter where they may be, and
• Everybody on board, so that connecting a call to the POTS network is never necessary.

Outfits like Vonage have been making progress at solving both those problems. But the truth is, if your other party is online, and you know their IP address, you can talk without Vonage or Google or anything else but your respective ISPs. And if you use encryption, your call can't be tapped (at least not without a "bag job").

[Cicero]

This is obviously the wave of the future.

But it's not free. If internet phone service drives the phone companies out of business, someone is going to have to pick up the pieces and maintain all those miles of wire and cable that permit the internet to operate.

That is, unless we go to satellite transmission, but that's not free either. To some extent, I believe, internet users have been piggy-backing on the phone companies and the cable TV companies. But someone has to pay for the infrastructure, one way or another.

One thing is for sure. Since the computer and internet revolutions, the one constant is change. Today's latest technology is tomorrow's door stopper.