Google is considering offering Voice over Internet Protocol phone calls according to the The Times.

Evidence for Google's alleged move comes from comments from Ovum analyst Julian Hewitt and the text of a job advert on Google's site. The ad is for an strategic negotiator to join the search engine's "technical infrastructure negotiation team".

The job will include responsiblity for IP transit services in North America, Europe, Asia, negotiating for collaction deals and sorting out contracts for dark fiber services. The Times says: "the logical use of such a network would be to help to support a new telephone service."

VoIP providers use software to route voice calls over the internet network at a lower cost than a call using the traditional phone network. Skype is one the best-known providers and claims 13m users across the world.

The technology is also gaining ground with corporate users: Lloyds-TSB recently signed a £500m deal with IBM to provide VoIP services.

The job adv is here.

More in The Times here.. ®

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