I think this is a good idea, i think google will bring compitition to the market and help drive prices down. How much did they buy the company for emma? I know SKYPE is such a big company but i would be interested to know how much money they actually make……i cant imagin parents being that into it.

I think this is definately a smart move for Google and because the site has such a good reputation, I would assume that a lot of people will at least have an interest in looking into the phone firm, if not becoming a member.

Google are getting far too powerful. What will they venture into next? Critics are right to comment on the privacy invasion but the current mobile phone system invades our privacy at virtually the same level.

i agree with elliot, i think google need to stick to online endevours – there is already a lot of clutter in the mobile phone industry and what will such a massive brand coming into that market do to the smaller phone brands?

I think with the strength that Google has as a trustworthy established brand they might do quite well, and it does make sense that they move into phones?! As they are already heavily linked with apple and the iPhone, why not take it a step further?!

Google seems to definitely be a force to be reckoned with! I personally still see them predominantly as a search engine provider but do use Google Mail and Blogger so I guess I too am slowly being Google-ised in more areas of my life. I say now that I’m not sure I would really bother with a telephone service offered by Google because I currently have Talk Talk, through which I can call internationally for free, ok it’s not on my mobile but I don’t currently need to make international calls on that. I may do in the future, in which case the Google phone service might be more appealing. Is this only available in the US though? I do agree with Jenni that there is quite a lot of clutter in the mobile phone industry with Virgin as a big player in my estimations – Google’s certainly not afraid of ‘a bit’ of competition though are they!

Do you perhaps think that Google are trying to be the next Virgin? Expanding into all these different areas, with the Richard Branson ‘entrepreneur’ state of mind. Yeah I think that Google is getting really powerful, but I think they have a very strong brand name, with good brand loyalty, so why not play on this?

yeah I agree Ryan,because they have such a strong brand name and seem to be so powerful already I imagine that they would do quite well. It may be good for consumers too as Nick said hopefully it will encourage some competition with pricing.

Google are trying to be more then Virgin, Google want to have a monopoly over services on the Internet!

I think they are doing a pretty good job of achieving it too!

Providing the call quality is OK, I think that Google could make a lot of money with this idea, I imagine there would be plenty of US companies happy about reducing the costs of their mobile bills, but having used Skype, if the quality is similar, it may well just be another addition to the already saturated mobile market.

This is a very clever idea implemented by Google in creating competition and expanding the market. Also, with Google’s well established, positive reputation, this has the potential to a very effective, successful campaign as well as an opportunity to extend their services. However, I have and will continue to use Skype due to it’s reliable, free and user-friendly service. Also, I have grown accustomed to Skype and my family and friends are also signed up, and by staying with this service this would save me time and effort in getting all my contacts to change over to Google.

forget the government losing your data

google has the potential to know a lot more!

I think this is a good idea on Google’s part but it will take alot for people to leave networks such as O2 and TMobile as often they have built up a relationship with a brand and can gain special offers that way.

Skype is a well established company and is now being realised as an alternative to traditional phone calls. A strong PR/Marketing/Advertising campaign will need to be put in place so consumers will be aware of the new service google has to offer which is something that has let them down in the past.

I don’t mean to go off topic from the mobile networks, but did you know that Google now have their own Internet browser as well?! I’m using it now actually. My Internet Explorer was playing up and I couldn’t download Firefox, so downloaded Google Chrome. It’s actually really good, a lot faster than Internet Explorer, and still so simple to use! Maybe Google are well on their way to becoming the next Virgin!

Link to full article needs sorting out. An extra “t” got caught up in the mix.