> I don't think Microsoft or Apply can match the ability for me to give out a number to someone If they're willing to burn the cash (and Apple certainly has a

> I don't think Microsoft or Apply can match the ability for me to give out a number to someone If they're willing to burn the cash (and Apple certainly has a lot lying around), they could. Google isn't a telco and they're paying CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers) for every phone number and for terminating every minute of every call that a Google Voice user makes. This makes Google Voice quite different from their other products - unlike gmail for instance, most of the Google Voice product actually comes from other companies and most of the per-user cost is probably going directly to these companies rather than to their own infrastructure and software development costs. Yes, the Google Voice software and infrastructure is still important but just not to the same degree as their other products. I often wonder if this is the reason why they only commit to making Google Voice free for one year at a time.