Segmentation Fault: Core dumped..;-)

Larry/Sergey vs. Niklas Zennström: Gates Vs. Jobs of Internet generation..;-)

Posted : January 24, 2005 at 10:43 am [America/Los_Angeles]

Here’s what various news sources today are reporting:

GOOGLE revolutionised the internet. Now it is hoping to do the same with our phones.

The company behind the US-based internet search engine looks set to launch a free telephone service that links users via a broadband internet connection using a headset and home computer.

The technology that will enable Google to move in on the market has been around for some time. Software by the London-based company, Skype, has been downloaded nearly 54 million times around the world but no large telecommunication firms have properly exploited it.

…

A recent job advert by Google’s on its website calls for a “strategic negotiator” to help the company to provide a “global backbone network” — a high-capacity international infrastructure.

By investing in capacity, Google could circumvent the problems of quality and reliability and guarantee better service.

Although Google is reluctant to talk about its plans, the logical use of such a network would be to help to support a new telephone service. The company would buy capacity cheaply, by taking up slack capacity left behind when the internet bubble collapsed in 2001.

Around the world, thousands of miles of fibre-optic cable remain unused because the amount of speculative development vastly exceeded demand. Such capacity would be available at rock-bottom prices today.

….

Google gears up for a free-phone challenge to BT

Would I luv to have a front-row seat to watch this Internet technology competition

However, you almost have to wonder: Why can’t Google just buy Skype out? Frankly, it would save Google a lot of work and save customers a lot of time before they start to get the benefits of a Google-based “VoIP Phone”. Come to think about it, I’d rather see a Baby Bells Vs. Google/Skype duo fight than a Google vs Skype.

Let’s face it: All non-VoIP based telephone service providers (like Baby Bells) know their revenues from “pure” voice based traffic is numbered.

- Anand

Category: IT and Business Trends