August 29, 2010 by William Peebles
Internet search giants Google have announced that they will be providing free telephone calls through Gmail, their free online e-mail service. In a bid to compete with online service providers such as Skype, Google’s new scheme enables people to use their Gmail account to call mobiles and land line numbers.
The new service will provide free calls for people residing in Canada and the US. Calls to other countries including the UK, China and Germany will cost users just two cents per minute. Up to this point, Google have only provided voice services through computers, but the new service promises to open up their telephone operations and compete with Skype for customers. According to reports, a glitch in the system means that international customers will be able to use the function, even though it was initially meant to be piloted just within the US.
The function will be provided on the Gmail chat window, enabling customers to dial numbers and make calls. Google’s charges for international calls will fund the provision of a free services within Canada and the US.
A Google spokesperson commented: “This is a real big deal because now hundreds of millions of Gmail users can make phone calls right from their Gmail page. They don’t need to download an additional application or anything to start making really high-quality low-cost calls. For the user it means much more efficient and low-cost communications. Unintentionally we briefly made the service available to non-US English users. We do hope to bring it to our international users soon.”
A spokesperson from CNET.com has commented: “Skype is a well known company in this place and they are almost like a verb in the internet calling world in the way Google is with search. You Skype someone. So I think there is some inertia there to get over and I am interested to see how Gmail users respond. But you always have to worry when Google comes after what you do. They don’t do things half way and bring a lot of resources to any problem they try to tackle. It doesn’t mean you are doomed.”
“Google’s product won’t work on your mobile browser so Skype has an advantage there but I don’t think it is a stretch to assume Google will come out with a mobile version pretty soon.”
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