said by nitzan:said by Arne Bolen:and it's likely Google Voice will continue the current free service at least a few more years.
I sure hope not. Google Voice is bad for VOIP because it is not economical- it essentially takes away customers from economical providers making it harder for them to survive long-term. It distorts the market - maybe even enough to kill a few providers - only for Google to arbitrarily shut it down or start charging later. As a user I guess it seems like a good thing, but when you look at the big picture it's just hurting the industry.
Think about it like this: lets say some big corp decided to start handing out free eggs at supermarkets. Within months/years all normal companies/farmers would stop producing eggs because they can't sell them. Then big-corp can either start charging and be the only egg manufacturer on the market, or worse- they could just shut down operations so no eggs for anybody. Point is- variety in an industry is good, so artificial forces that prevent variety are bad.
Edit: of course I'm biased. I've heard the "I bought an Obi and going to use GV only from now on" from a lot of customers before, but that's exactly the point. There's also, perhaps more evil aspect to consider here: the harder it gets for providers to recruit and retain customers - the more they're going to spend on advertising. And guess who gains the most from that...
I hear you. But honestly, small VOIP carriers can do a lot to offset the GV impact and unfortunately, they often do not do that.
GV is a perfect replacement for Ooma, Magic jack or Nettalk . It does not replace a full featured VOIP service. I do not see a small business owner cancelling his Callcentric service and switching everything to Google voice. But look at certain things : Example, Anveo web site. Designed to turn off the customer. Or some other companies not to be named who only take minimum payments of 15.- or even 25(!) dollars!( I am not talking about semi-wholesalers like Voxbeam) They have to offer features AND perfection AND customer service, GV is really short on those things. Go and cater more to budget customers. And last not least, operate truly globally! If you do, GV will have only a limited impact on you. I am a very happy customer of Localphone in spite of free Google Voice.