We are big fans of technology at Madeinmilan. We do download all Skype beta versions (often just to find them unusable and go back to the stable version) and have subscribed the Techcrunch feed, of course.

This morning Techcrunch surprises me with a -potential- alternative to my Skype system, Google Voice. It promises to simplify your life with telephones. The basic idea around Grand Central (the company bought by Google to develop the Voice system) is “one phone number for all your phones, for life.” You give out only one numbers and that reroutes all your incoming call as you wish. Google will offer as well a SMS system and a voicemail which will transcript your messages and archive them. It will be managed through an interface very similar to Gmail. It sounds sensational.

We are Skype business users, we regularly make phone calls through Skype, we have Skype subscriptions and our telephone business model is designed around Skype to secure our phones are reliable, portable and affordable.

Now let’s see if Google Voice can replace this. When Gmail launched the embedded video, some people called it “Skype killer” which was clearly an exaggeration. This Google Voice, on the other side, has more potential to be competitive with Skype. The main thing they have to care about is reliability which, so far, Grand Central hasn’t secured.

I can’t wait to try it. I am still not sure if it will be available outside the United States.