There is also realisable value in being able to ‘move to change.’ A software development house can give a large network operator an ability to respond to change quickly.

I think a lot of businesses that considered this intrusion into something we’ve long considered private, our phone calls and voicemails, to be a deal killer in using Goole Voice. It’s certainly stopped me from using my GV account until the smarter people than I more fully explore the potential privacy and security risks of trusting yet another intimate part of lives to feeding the great Google data mining effort.

How do the telcos keep making the same ARPU if they turn over applications (voice, video, messaging,etc)to third parties? It is very convenient for people to say that they should just focus on being a “pipe” but they have already established the ARPU with those services and as public companies (with shareholders) they can’t give up the revenue. Show me the money to replace the services ARPU and you may see a Telco switch to a pipe provider or it will take a new company to the group (Clearwire) to provide the Silicon Valley with their dumb pipe nirvana.