Google Voice app for iPhone browser

Google Voice app for iPhone browser

It looks like Google got tired of waiting for Apple to approve or reject the Google Voice iPhone app it submitted for consideration last June, so the company has decided to sidestep Apple completely.

This morning, Google announced a Google Voice app that works via the iPhone's built-in Web browser, rather than through the phone's operating system as standard apps do.  The Web-based app can do everything Google Voice is supposed to, including make calls, send text messages, and review and listen to voice mails.

The standoff between Apple and Google over the non-approved (rejected?) Google Voice app was bitter enough to draw antitrust scrutiny from the FCC, but nothing concrete ever came of that inquiry, and the months ticked by with no Google Voice presence on the iPhone.

So Google built around the problem, using HTML5, a Web-page design language that allows Web publishers to more easily integrate sophisticated multimedia elements, such as audio and video.  Built from these elements, Google's Voice app looks nearly indistinguishable from a true iPhone app.

Until you start using it.

Anyone used to making calls on a touch-tone keypad -- and that's everyone -- may be confused when, after typing in the number you'd like to call -- Google Voice pops up a box that asks if you'd like to call a different number than the one you just entered.  As it turns out, this is a dial-in number for the Google Voice service itself, but this is not obvious until you look it up.  Adding the number (916-538-3466 in my case) to your contacts doesn't help, either -- evidently the Web app can't access the iPhone's contact list to tell the user that this is the Google Voice dial-in number and not, say, the number to your boss' cellphone.

Texting with the app gave me similar problems -- when a friend wrote back, his number was displayed as a 406 area code, which was neither his Google Voice number nor his actual phone number.  Again, it's some kind of phone line Google employs for text messages. 

The fact that Google uses a bunch of intermediate numbers to channel Google Voice calls and texts around to users shouldn't be quite so obvious -- the whole point is to give users a system that mimics a normal phone without the caller needing to worry about extra steps.

That said, it may be that those awkward extra steps were precisely what it took for Google to get around Apple's stonewall.

FCC asks major telecoms — and Google — to explain early termination fees

The Federal Communications Commission today sent  inquiry letters to the nation's major telecommunications firms -- and Google Inc. -- in an effort to shed light on the industry's often confusing  practice of charging consumers to end their cellphone service contracts early -- so called early termination fees, or ETFs.

"We are now writing simultaneously to multiple companies to ask a standard set of questions on approaches to ETFs and their implementation," the FCC wrote to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and Google.  "This is an essential step to ensuring that consumers have the information that helps them make informed choices in a competitive marketplace."

The letters included about a dozen questions on different industry practices relating to ETFs -- including a question about why the fees are necessary at all.

The fees are a penalty for ending multiyear phone contracts, during which consumers  often pay wireless companies thousands of dollars for phone and data service.  The revenue from those contracts in turn allows wireless providers to lure new customers by offering steep markdowns on the often-expensive smart phones. But the contracts prevent existing users from leaving their provider if they are unsatisfied with their service, or if they see a better deal elsewhere.

The inclusion of Google in the set of companies contacted by the FCC was related to the tech giant's recent launch of the Nexus One handset, the first phone marketed directly by Google.  The company took some licks when observers noticed Google had attached its own $350 early termination fee to the Nexus One.  Anyone who bought the phone, along with the default T-Mobile service contract -- would have to pay termination fees to Google as well as to T-Mobile -- a decision that could cost up to $550.

"The combination of ETFs from Google and T-Mobile for the Nexus One is also unique among the four major national carriers," the FCC told Google. "Consumers have been surprised by this policy and by its financial impact."

The FCC requested that the companies respond to the questions by Feb. 23, but have the option to request that their answers be treated confidentially.