( Wired ) -- Google is set to become your new phone company , perhaps reducing your phone bill to zilch in the process . Seriously . Google has bought Gizmo5 , an online phone company that is akin to Skype but based on open protocols and with a lot fewer users . TechCrunch , which broke the news on Monday , reported that Google spent $ 30 million on the company . Google announced the Gizmo acquisition on Thursday afternoon Pacific Time . Gizmo5 's founder Michael Robertson , a brash serial entrepreneur , will become an Adviser to Google Voice . It 's a potent recipe -- take Gizmo5 's open standards-based online calling system . Add to it the new ability to route calls on Google 's massive network of cheap fiber . Toss in Google Voice 's free phone number , which will ring your mobile phone , your home phone and your Gizmo5 client on your laptop . ÿþ . Meanwhile you can use Gizmo5 to make ultracheap outgoing calls to domestic and international phone numbers , and free calls to Skype , Google Talk , Yahoo and AIM users . You could make and receive calls that bypass the per-minute billing on your smartphone . Then layer on deluxe phone services like free SMS , voicemail transcription , customized call routing , free conference calls and voicemails sent as recordings to your e-mail account , and you have a phone service that competes with Skype , landlines and the Internet telephone offerings from Vonage and cable companies . That 's not just pie in-the-sky dreaming . Ask longtime VOIP watcher and consultant Andy Abramson , who introduced the idea of integrating Gizmo5 and Grand Central ( now Google Voice ) , long before Google bought either . `` Google is now the the uncommon carrier , '' Abramson said , punning on the iconic 7-UP commercials and the phrase `` common carrier . '' That refers to phone companies that operate on the traditional publicly switched network -- a status that gives them benefits and obligations . `` If AT & T is Coca-Cola , Google is now 7-UP , '' Abramson added . `` All of a sudden you have something that offers more than Skype , '' Abramson said , saying the combo could now put Google in competition with phone and cable companies , IP `` telephony '' ( VOIP ) companies and Vonage . `` But now you can do everything with Google and pay nothing and have a platform where engineers can build new things . '' In fact , Gizmo5 offered a rogue version of that service for $ 6 a month until last week . On November 2 , Gizmo5 abruptly canceled the two-month old `` residential service , '' which paired the free phone number available through Google Voice with Gizmo 's Internet calling service to provide the equivalent of a home-phone replacement like Vonage . Now , that service has been wiped off the Internet and , more intriguingly , Google 's cache of the page disappeared the day after the acquisition was reported . For $ 6 a month , Gizmo5 residential users got 300 minutes a month of outbound calling anywhere in the United States , unlimited incoming calls on their home computers or even home phones ( using a broadband-to-phone network conversion box ) and E911 service ( which means 911 calls work like landlines calls do , once you register your home address ) . It 's not too surprising that offer got taken down . For one Google is already trying to steer clear of U.S. regulators by making it clear that Google Voice is n't a replacement for a home phone since you have to have phone service from some other company to use it . You can forward calls from a Google Voice number to your Gizmo5 number , but you must have a mobile or landline number as well . Google does n't say it , but clearly it hopes that restriction will keep the service from incurring the common carrier obligations attached to the regular phone system ( PSTN ) , and the 911 and wiretapping requirements that apply to Internet telephony and to traditional copper wire phones . AT & T has already tried to sic federal regulators on Google Voice because Google is blocking outgoing calls to a handful of shady calling services mostly free conference-calling services that exploit federal rules that let rural phone companies charge high fees to connect calls to rural areas . AT & T itself has sued similar services that play this arbitrage game , and complaining to the feds may have only brought more attention to an issue the FCC has procrastinating fixing for too long . Gizmo5 will also help save Google money on phone-call termination fees as users start to use computer-based clients to connect to Google Voice . That would allow Google to recoup the purchase price of $ 30 million in little time , if only it saves even a few dollars per user per year . Google also gets Michael Robertson , a troublemaker with technical chops . Robertson made millions from MP3.com in the dot-com boom , despite drawing lawsuits from major record labels for creating innovative services . He was later sued by Microsoft for his startup Lindows , which made Linux installations for cheap PCs . And his current music venture , MP3tunes.com , is being sued by EMI . Though still in invite-only mode , Google Voice has about 580,000 active users and nearly 1.5 million registered users , according to a Google filing with the FCC . If you are interested in the combination , you might want to sign up for Gizmo5 before the acquisition is formally announced , since Google often freezes new registrations at companies it acquires until it figures out how to integrate the technology . 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Google is set to become your new phone company , perhaps reducing your phone bill to zilch in the process . Comment: Users could make and receive calls that bypass the per-minute billing on smartphones . Consultant : `` If AT & T is Coca-Cola , Google is now 7-UP ''