Google may just be the Voice of the future

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I smell trouble. On Wednesday, Google launched a new Gmail-based feature called Voice. With the exception of its social networking attempts, Google has an excellent track record of putting out new features that don't suck. This is no exception. It's VoIP for your Gmail. You can call landlines and mobile phones directly from your computer. That's any phone, presumably anywhere in the world, except probably North Korea. Even Iran is part of the network.

You can call India for only six US cents (two fils) a minute. You need to look at the tariff rate of the country you're calling first. Since these calls technically originate from the US with my VPN, the rates can get a little screwy. Calling a mobile phone in Oman for example will cost me 25 cents (six fils), while a local call in Dubai would cost about five fils.

As we all know, Skype has been blocked in the UAE for years, under the argument that it is not a telecommunications company authorised to operate in the UAE. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) doesn't want anyone to have any customer service issues.