Why AT&T is full of it and why Google Voice is good for the consumer

[Commentary] Here's a question -- When did AT&T become the darling consumer friendly telephone company that cares about your privacy and delivered superior and innovative services? Answer: Only in your dreams, you lowly consumer. First of all, the Internet's infrastructure IS different from the telephone infrastructure. Just look at the billing --- AT&T (and all other phone companies) charges consumers by the minute or per message. Can you imagine getting charged by the email message, IM message or per YouTube video stream? AT&T would love to do that. Second, Google Voice is a software application that rides on infrastructure built by other companies. It runs on the Internet protocol. It is NOT a common carrier service. But I can't blame AT&T for arguing this point as they never really understood the difference between an application on the Internet and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Third, it's a FREE service and consumers that have it love it. It is not intended to be a replacement for traditional telephone service. If you do not have a phone land line or mobile line from AT&T or any other carrier Google Voice does not work. If anything, Google Voice drives more telephone traffic for AT&T. If they want to be competitive, AT&T should build a similar service on PSTN and offer it as a free service but that would just be too consumer friendly. Instead of snarky, whiny complaints, AT&T's statement should have been, "We have been outsmarted and out-innovated again so we would like the consumer to pay for our ineptitude in technology planning and foresight. We want the government to save us again, please."