Analyst Firm Urges Google To Buy Mobile Phone Operator T-Mobile US

Analysts at Gerson Lehrman Group have suggested that search engine operator Google should buy T-Mobile USA, a purchase that would give Google a whopping 33 million new Google Voice users overnight.

The research report, which was published last week, says that T-Mobile US is already the 4th largest mobile operator and like its UK counterpart, stands no chance of catching up with AT&T, Verizon or Sprint. 

T-Mobile UK will be absorbed by Orange UK sometimes in 2010 in a deal that will make of the latter the biggest mobile phone network in the country while removing a thorn in the side of Deutsche Telekom.

GLG experts write that "With Google Voice and now the Nexus One, like it or not Google is becoming a telecom operator. Perhaps their relationships with carriers will go the way of their relationship with Apple … friends first, now direct competitors".

Google has announced two days ago that it would launch a project that aims to provide Gigabit broadband to tens of thousands of households. This alone is going to cost it around $1 billion according to some estimates.

Does it therefore make sense to allocate significant financial and human resources to a massive, high profile mobile phone network in the US? Certainly not.