As per this article in Techcrunch, it seems that Google is having some teething problems with its new mobile service that allows users to have "one phone number for all your phones, for life" which is a great idea... when it is online.
The Techcrunch article pretty much tears through the ability of a phone service to be "offline", and when I read the official comment being "unfortunately I’ve been up in the mountains with the family this weekend and had no cell/internet coverage so couldn’t respond earlier", I don't think this sounds very reliable. I mean, I know it's Beta, but you can't expect a $50m phone company not to have 24/7 tech support and redundant power sources. The founder shouldn't have to head down from the mountains to fix a power cut!
Is this another example of tech giant Google beta-izing its offerings, while we wait til they catch up with our expectations of what the service should be? This sounds more like what people complain about Microsoft products than Google products... but never mind.
It also reminds me of JPhone->Vodafone->Softbank/Yahoo! (mobile) in Japan, always falling foul of some reason or other and not being able to provide a consistent 24/7 mobile service. No wonder it's not going anywhere, and most telco professionals complain about it.
A mobile phone company is a utility company: either it's working, or we cannot live a normal social life.
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