Gmail voice goes live

Robert Clark | August 26, 2010

telecomseurope.net

Google’s Gmail phone service – reported to be in beta stage yesterday – has gone live, offering Skype-style voice and video calling.

The service is activated out of the Gmail inbox, and offers free calls to North America until the year-end, Google software engineer Robin Schriebman said in a blog.

Calls to both fixed and mobile numbers in key Asian destinations China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore are 2 US cents (€0.01) a minute. Calls to India are charged at 6 cents a minute.

The new service is not Google’s first IP voice service – it already offers Google Voice – but it is the first which enables calls to telephones.

However, it is unlikely to impact fixed or mobile telcos, who already offer cut-price IDD charges.

As analyst Steve Clement of Pacific Crest told Reuters, “The type of person who would use a service like that isn't the type of customer who still has a landline.”

By coincidence or not, the Gmail voice service hits the market just as Skype is preparing for an IPO.

Facebook

Twitter

Digg