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Google to make fixed-line service obsolete?
Tuesday 31st August 2010, by Daniel King
Google is planning to make fixed-line services obsolete, according to one expert.
The search engine giant last week launched its Voice Calls service.
Voice Calls allows US and Canadian broadband users who have Gmail to call each for free.
The service is expected to be rolled out in the UK, but is currently only available in North America.
With 24 hours of the service's launch on August 26th, the search engine's Twitter feed announced that it had already logged one million calls.
Commenting on the announcement, Steve Hilton of Analysys Mason said: "Google has little financial interest in people using their fixed-line phones.
"They have a huge interest in switching usage to mobile devices, especially Android powered devices, and other computing devices."
However, he added that the biggest demand for the service was likely to still be with younger users rather than older ones.
"The new service will please existing Google application users and maybe some Skype users who will try-out the Google service.
"It won't make my mother disconnect her telephone line, but it might cause my son never to purchase fixed-line telephone service from his local telephone company," Mr Hilton said.
The provision of the service over mobile devices could also see more households switching to mobile broadband deals only.
Categories: Broadband
