Great we really need the Gov to take care of the people? This is bad because our so called leaders are too old to understand the internet by themselfs. so this is going to be solved by the lobbiest..

If you expect someone to take your post seriously (no matter how crazy it may be) the least you could do is spell check it.

Google Voice is an add on to another service that you already pay for. If your a company in such a dominant position, as AT&T are, where you provide a service and then start blocking a third party application just because it takes revenue from your own monopolized business and because you never had the foresight to see it coming, then you; AT&T, should offer a similar like-for-like package and not curtail innovation just because you didn’t think of the idea in the first place to make a profit.

I'm not Pro-Google but I’m glad this application was created by Google because I doubt a small time development company would have got the publicity over this if it were their application and AT&T would probably wipe them out of existence without nobody noticing.

Yes, Yes I do have a google voice account. As an IT professiomal at a local hospital I use it to facilitate after hour support. Users can enter there extension number in a web page and the system will find the IT person on call for that day. All free.

So,now FARBEYOND you may STFU !

I believe the point isn't that AT&T or anyone else is thinking (at the moment) that Google are going to replace them for phone calls, but AT&T is worried as always that their customers will actually (over-)use their (poor) capacity. That's why they forbid calling to conference calls over wireless phones and why they don't want net neutrality over wireless.

They know that wired phones are going away and they want to make sure they profit from wireless and limit their losses on land lines.

Should things become open and even, AT&T and others will be scrambling to find new ways to make money since methods used since the early days of mobile phones seem to be vanishing.

AT&T is really trying hard to make people thing Net neutrality is a bad thing for them and for business. Simple facts. Google voice, Skype and so on are all SERVICES that use the EXISTING web connection. No one can have a web connection without subscribing to an internet service. And for that we all need to pay a teleco company. Net neutrality is about ensuring this teleco companies do not mess with the traffic that passes their lines. We all are already paying to access those lines after all. Google is not going against its principles regarding net neutrality. On the contrary in fact. This is yet again proof that the net should remain neutral as teleco companies are already showing that they will do everything in their power to deny certain services to run on their lines.

Yeah, unless you went back in time and experienced History firsthand, then STFU and don't talk about it.

the problem is a lot of people are commenting on google voice as if it were a voip provider, such as vonage, skype or magic jack.

google voice just forwards calls, you still need an actual endpoint to conduct the calls.

without existing phone service, you wouldn't be able to send or receive calls. what google voice does is allow you to have one virtual phone number that rings multiple devices, and has built in voicemail and sms features.

Your behaviour has been reported to an administrator.

This thing sucks, AT&T is just whining because their service sucks,
in comparison to Google voice thing!

And about laws, google voice is just an application.
It isn't a network, Google isn't a network operator.
Google builds upon the network operators infrastructure actually.
It develops applications that uses it.
Shut up and provide decent services AT&T!

Do AT&T's people know what the word noisome means? Perhaps they should consult a dictionary. It is sad to watch what used to be a major communications company misusing the English language.

AT&T or SBC, they are from the heritage of monopoly. If not for Internet, they would be still ripping off consumers. Google wins the market by total choice of consumers. If AT&T is smart enough, they should quit complaining about Google and offers more values to their customers.

Let's see now, my AT&T landline with caller ID is $46 a month.
Where as my Google Voice number with caller ID, voice mail, call forwarding and call blocking cost absolutely nothing.

AT&T should be kissing my a$$ for not dumping them. Lucky for them, my wife insists on having a landline.

Wrong, and, yes, I have a GV account.

GV can also work with Gizmo5, a Skype-like SIP service. Thus, with a GV number and forwarding to Gizmo5, you can eliminate the necessity for a landline (or cell phone).

Obama is also allowing google to create grooming droids to overtake the long-hated, monopolized dog grooming industry. Poor companies like AT&T and AOL who offer(ed) horrible, over-priced products and than wonder why they get squashed when innovation levels the playing field while they refuse to understand why people won't pay for their inferior products.

There are many ways to prove virtually every thing you wrote as wrong, but out of fear that you have backdoor access to the unfairly ridiculed previous whitehouse administration of BushLIED-CheneyTORTURED, I'll ask you to answer one simple true/false question: (Please don't send the silent black helicopters or mind altering nano-creatures.)

Q: Taxing every user of something that is free gives the federal government the money necessary for medicare to pay for baby killing abortions that save the woman's life? And have the added benefit of allowing 0.1% of the 307,550,154 people in the USA (http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html) to improve their standing from very rich to extremely rich while simultaneously accomplishing the task of allowing the very rich and extremely rich insure the middle class become poor and the poor become very poor? (Hint: Despite the fear of government run medical care, Medicare kicks in for EVERY American at the age of 65.)

Lets run through a quick 5th grade math word problem to help narrow down the two choices (true and false):
Ex: Johnny walks into his local 7-11 to buy a carton of milk. The milk costs $2.25. A big sign on the door reads Bush (sorry, I mean recession) special --> First carton of milk 100% free. He takes the carton up to the counter. Not being able to do basic math in his head, the cashier scans the UPC on the milk carton and the computerized register reads $0.00. Confused and dazed the cashier hits to the subtotal button (as he had been trained to do 12 years ago) and the register still reads $0.00. Having recently completed a year of advanced 5th grade US math, Johnny new that meant the price was equal to zero.

Johnny's parents had always told him that if you can get away with getting something for free (by any means) to jump at the opportunity. He wanted to double check and make sure the total really was zero. He asked the cashier to try again. The cashier told him he had to pay for this order before he could close the registers drawer and scan a different item.

Johnny thought about for a minute and decided to take things into his own hands before he paid the cashier the $0.00 he owed him for the milk. His teacher, having completed high school himself, had taught Johnny that when you had a discount, you multiplied the discount percentage by the cost of the item and then subtract that amount from the original price to get the total. Johnny pulled out his handy dandy lazy mans brain alternative, the iPhone, found the little box with numbers on hit and opened the calculator application. Using his fingers he punched in 2.25 * 100 and hit the % button. The display read 2.2500. Johnny knew he had one step left, so not having made it to US high school math yet, he didn't realize that 2.2500 was in fact the same things as 2.25. But he knew how to use the memory and clear buttons on his phone. So he put the 2.2500 into memory and cleared the display. He then entered 2.25, the minus sign, and memory recall, followed by the over sized equal button. The display now read 0.00. Johnny was proud his phone read the same thing as the big computerized register on the counter.

The cashier then had a sinking feeling her forgot one of the steps but couldn't figure out what he had forgotten. He started to sweat and panic. His fear of losing his job if he had to ask the new store manager what he missed was so disturbing he knew it was a real emergency and he better get some help. He picked up the phone, punched in the numbers 911, and waited about 5 seconds. An automated system answered and apologized for the delay saying call volume was very high but someone would be with him soon. The announcement went on to offer alternatives to the caller. The recorded message told the cashier to hold on if help was needed for a true life, limb, or property emergency, other wise the caller was directed to contact other free resources including google.com, 311, their private physician (with the caveat that the caller must earn $100,000 or more per year for this option,) their local library, and a half dozen other resources for situations that didn't require immediate help from the police, emergency medical system, or fire department. The cashier held on since this was a true emergency.

Meanwhile Johnny, being the son of two accountants knew he had to pay tax on everything he purchased. He suggested the cashier hit the Total button so it could calculate the tax and let them know exactly how much Johnny had to pay.

Being relieved, the cashier hearing the 911 operator come on the line asking what the emergency was, simply said that he wasn't going to die if he just hit the total button and hung up the phone.

The cashier quickly hit the total button and the display read $0.00 due.

Having read the sign stating a carton of milk was 100% free, Johnny realized that the total in front of him was the tax he had to pay. He pulled out his wallet and searched for a Zero dollar bill. Being out of those, he searched his pocket for a Zero cent coin. Not having one of those either and knowing if he returned home without milk his punishment would be an unbearable 48 hour period without his 52" flat panel TV and his Wii, grabbed the milk and ran out of the store, once again remember his parents telling him to take something free by any means.

The cashier, leaving the register drawer open, ran after Johnny yelling, "You owe me zero dollars!" and other curse words I can't type here.

Conclusion:
- Johnny's parents were so proud of him for not having to pay the tax on the milk.
- Being alone in the store, United Health Care's CEO couldn't figure out how to get the coffee out of the machine into the paper cup, realized this was why he had a college educated assistant, and started to head towards his limousine. Walking past the counter he noticed the registrar drawer open. Not even looking to see if anyone was around, reached into the drawer and pulled every bill and coin out. With a big smile on his face he walked out the front door where his chauffeur opened the limo door so he could get him. Being proud of himself for rescuing the cash from having to be around any of the 307,242,604 people his company was planning on ripping off, he felt like being generous. He gave the elegantly tux clad wearing chauffeur a 5 dollar bill saying, "The midnight s*** maid told my wife she can feed her entire family for a day on $5 in your people's neighborhood." The chauffeur said, "Thank you sir" closed the door and walked around to the drivers door saying to himself 'Pas étonnant que nous ne voulons pas que ces gens dans notre pays!' (Translated to: 'No wonder we don't want these people in our country!')
- The cashier returning to the store and finding an empty register panicked and filled the drawer with cheeze wiz, assuming the manager wouldn't notice the difference in weight. He is now serving a 60 day sentence having been found guilty of a law in Carmel that states, "A man can’t go outside while wearing a jacket and pants that do not match." He should taken off his 7-11 smock before running after Johnny.

A: True or False?

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Yes I know this isn't exactly on topic, but it's no more off topic than Looey's reply is inaccurate.

I know, I go a little overboard when I see such ignorance and stupidity. After writing it I couldn't decided whether to hit the "post your comment" button or not. But I figured those people probably wouldn't take the time to read the whole thing or wouldn't understand it. Sorry to offend so many people, but reality check: If you don't know what your talking about and haven't taken the time to learn enough to understand a topic, don't bother wasting your time or our time. Instead pickup a newspaper, a non Murdoch empire paper, and learn what is really going on in this world.

Ultimately Looey's attempt to blame Obama for AT&T choosing their shareholders over their consumers, is as ridiculous as the senior citizen town hall spoilers yelling at Senators and Representatives to stop health care reform because they like the insurance they have now and don't want the government to put their hands on it. (In my opinion, the answer to those people should have simply been, fine, you don't want the government giving you health insurance, you have just legally terminated your right to receive medicare. Think of all the money the government would have saved then:))

BTW, yes I do have Google Voice. And I still pay my annual fee to Vonage for my VOIP line and my employer still pays their monthly fees to AT&T for my blackberry service.

For those who have either been brainwashed or brain dead, Google Voice requires you to have at least one landline/VOIP/cell line. So rest assured that if you've been getting ripped off, you will continue to be ripped off. But the convenience of Google Voice and ease of use just may push some of those companies to decrease the amount they are ripping you off, by trying to offer more services and lower their rates so you don't use Google Voice.