Here we go again: Google's gonna be your VoIP provider?

Every new year seems to bring the promise that we will see Google become our carrier of choice. But do we really want that? Does Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) really want that? Nevertheless, the rumor mill churns on.

Speculators around the web are once again connecting the dots. Google has a mobile operating system that now natively supports VoIP over WiFi, Android phones are gaining on the iPhone, it has amassed large quantities of dark fiber, it's working on becoming an interenet service provider, and now it has 1.4 million Google Voice users. What's stopping it from cutting out AT&T (NYSE: T), Sprint (NYSE: S), T-Mobile and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and just taking over the mobile market with some super Android Mobile VoIP play? Or, even more far fetched, buying a carrier like Sprint!

Well, being a carrier is tough work and letting those other companies do that work while Google makes money isn't a bad deal. Just ask AT&T which is constantly struggling to keep its network going under the strain of its iPhone users, or Sprint with its investments in WiMAX.

As Connected Planet points out, with Android Google is basically using the entire carrier ecosystem as its own MVNO--why should it get into the network game? And, they rightfully point out, Google has yet to respond at all to the latest rumor mill. Why, because it is probably all just make believe again.

For more:
- read the CNN article
- Connected Planet article