Telecommunications

If Google Inc. has its way, your cellphone will work on any wireless network and companies will sell high-speed Internet access for cut-rate prices. Google thinks that would be a wonderful world -- for consumers as well as its own bottom line -- and it's proposing to pony up $4.6 billion in a long-shot bid to create it. The king of Web search Friday offered to dig into its mountain of cash to transform a chunk of prime public airwaves into a high-speed data freeway.

Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc., after a year of trading barbs in the Internet phone software market, pledged Monday to make their products work together in the interest of customers. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Cisco CEO John Chambers said in New York that they would make their technologies compatible. The companies are working together on security technology, wireless phones, network management and consumer video services, the two executives said.

A two-day outage that left millions of Skype users unable to use the popular Internet phone service was caused by an abnormally high number of restarts after people had downloaded a Windows security update, the company said Monday. The worldwide outage, which began Thursday and ended Saturday, left millions of Skype users unable to log on to make phone calls or send instant messages. Luxembourg-based Skype Ltd., part of online auction giant EBay Inc.

The Google Phone is like the Roswell UFO: Few outsiders know if it really exists, but it's got a cult following. Just months after iPhone mania gripped Silicon Valley gadget heads, suspense is building over reports that Google Inc. plans to release its own cellphone. The blogosphere is buzzing with rumors that the search giant may announce Linux-based mobile software as early as this week and a Google phone, which observers have cheekily dubbed the GPhone, by early next year.

It may be something of a teenage nightmare: possible limits on wireless phone calls, curbs on text messages and restrictions on downloads -- all at a parent's fingertips. AT&T Inc., the nation's largest wireless carrier, will launch a service today giving parents that kind of wide-ranging control on almost all of its 63.7 million subscriber lines.

Verizon Wireless has launched an appeal against the Federal Communication Commission's final rules for next year's auction of prized radio spectrum, calling them arbitrary and capricious. The company urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to strike down rules establishing so-called open-access conditions. It said they exceeded "the commission's authority" and were "unsupported by substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law."

Apple Inc. said Tuesday that it would sell the iPhone in Britain with mobile-service provider O2, the first step by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs to capture a share of the wireless-phone market outside the U.S. The 8-gigabyte handset will go on sale in Britain on Nov. 9 for 269 pounds ($536), Jobs said in London. O2 is owned by Madrid-based Telefonica, Europe's second-largest telephone company. Jobs slashed the iPhone's price in the U.S.

Regional wireless company MetroPCS Wireless Inc. will launch service in greater Los Angeles today, bringing its low-priced prepaid plans for unlimited calling and text messaging to an area encompassing 11 million people. The Dallas company offers monthly flat-rate plans ranging from $30 for unlimited local calling to $50 for unlimited nationwide calls, Internet, e-mail, and text and picture messaging.

Nationwide calling from your regular home phone is getting closer to being free. Two new companies are trying to attract the average consumer to Internet telephony by bypassing the local phone and cable TV giants to provide free calls on standard-issue phone handsets. The free calls come at a price, of course -- either one-time hardware costs or low annual membership fees.

If e-mail is free on the Internet, why not phone calls? It hasn't happened yet, unless you use computer-to-computer calling services such as Skype. But who wants to go through the inconvenience of talking on a computer all the time? This month, however, two Internet phone devices are debuting that do away with monthly charges after you pay for the gizmo. And you use your own, traditional phone.