> But all of these advances are still intimately tied to the phone system and phone numbers — and while Google’s managed to abstract the phone number away from

> But all of these advances are still intimately tied to the phone system and phone numbers — and while Google’s managed to abstract the phone number away from the device by building on top of the existing system, none of its services are completely functional unless you’re paying a carrier for a voice plan. I feel like a broken record repeating this every time VoIP comes up, but this just isn't true; I've had a Nexus One with no voice plan since it came out, and it works really well over SIP.