Google's VoIP service opening them up to regulation?

Time and again Google has made the claim they are not a carrier and thus shouldn't be succeptible to the same regulations as phone companies. In the past we've covered the call termination debate where companies pushed for Google to follow regulations other companies had to follow. Now with the new calling available in Gmail, should Google be even more afraid of being regulated like other companies providing phone service?

A group of analysts come together in a recent eWeek article to chime in on this issue and the issue seems to really come down to what Google is actually offering. Google is providing an end point for calls through a free software based messaging platform, but broadband services are still being provided by telecom companies. Of course even with that being the case, it's not like telephone companies can manage the phone service Google is providing over their wires--which is often what the FCC regulations are meant to affect.

One analyst at Gartner thinks that if the FCC does decide to classify Google as a carrier of sorts, the company might just drop its offerings rather than go down that road.

For more:
- read the whole debate at eWeek

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