| Google Voice, Will They Dominate?
Google has moved into voice communications with a simultaneous-ringing service that tries you at all of your phone numbers. This service finds the receiving party and in situations where multiple phones are available, the receiving party can choose which to answer, presumably the phone that is the lowest rate, most convenient, and/or the best quality. Will Google dominate another market with Google Voice or is the multi billion dollar telecom market too much?
To answer this let's look at our voice options:
- Land Lines or Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN)
- Voice over IP (VoIP)
- Mobile (cell phones)
I'll start by making a not-so-bold statement that consumer really don't care what backbone they use, they simply want low cost, effective telecommunications. Google Voice rides this idea by issuing users a new number that can be dialed (or clicked) by anyone and will ring to multiple phones
No surprise with cost and advantages… Land lines are weak and pricey. VoIP, for the most part, ties you to your PC. Mobile phones dominate.
Additionally, mobile phones are relative easy to deploy: setup a tower and you are in business. I guess this is why mobile phones continue to grow at such a fast rate in the US and worldwide.
With mobile phones growing so fast, 10 digit dialing will remain in effect for the foreseeable future here in the US. A phone number is analogous to an IP address on the Internet. Users type in domain names, not IP addresses. More and more, callers "click-to-call" or use voice initiated dialing on their mobile phones. Google Voice will help promote more click-to-call practices in the marketplace.
Google Voice also unifies voice messaging and offers playback but that's for another blog.
Michael Markette is Managing Partner of Callbutton, LLC and has been in the call tracking business for more than 10 years.
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