The search advertising company has laid a lot of groundwork for what could be a dramatic entry into enabling voice over Internet telephony communications, but will they pull the trigger?



There's a kind of dream scenario about Google and VoIP that goes beyond the ability to make those calls. It's the hope that Google weaves its growing number of facilities with a bunch of portable data centers by using the miles of dark fiber it's purchased.

Then, they plug that in to a bunch of WiMax or other long-range broadband antennas all over the place. All over the country, an ad-supported, freely available wireless VoIP service flickers to life.

On the Google home page, a simple link: 'Get your free Gphone here.'

Ahead of the wireless dream, the VoIP could be closer to reality. The VoIP Now website has backtracked very nicely through the history of Google and its Google Talk service.

In the history they review, VoIP Now referenced a story where Google's Dave Girouard, VP and general manager of their enterprise division, said Google Talk would be "beefed up" to work with traditional phone systems and with other VoIP vendors.

If Google were to use its financial power and its growing presence in Washington to push for VoIP regulation, it could be the beginning of the end of traditional cellphone carrier dominance of the wireless realm:

Google Talk could make the cell-service provider’s role and rate-setting power shrink dramatically in a world of interoperable IM clients with further partnerships and capabilities, especially if it partners with a strong PTSN and even moreso if digital files are made available and searchable.

If the stories are true, Google has leased enough quantities of "dark" fiber (fiber-optic cable that's already been laid, but is not yet in use) over the past two years to play telephony tag to the moon and back.

Should Google light up that dark fiber, and have the hardware in place to support wireless VoIP (or even conventional VoIP running over that network), the fireworks over the existing cellular and wired telecoms will look like the Fourth of July, with freedom and wireless calls and data for all.

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Tags: Google, VoIP

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