It’s time to fuel more speculation surrounding the launch of a more broadly accessible Google Voice. The buzz started last week when John Fontana at Network World (among others) reported that Google had reserved 1 million telephone numbers from its IP-telephony carrier, Level 3. In many ways, claiming such a large block of numbers is the antithesis of the “bring your own phone number” strategy we discussed in this post; but it does suggest that Google is poised to fulfill on any strategy it might pursue to grow Google Voice’s business.

Step one, it appears, will be to broaden the base of users beyond the original GrandCentral customers. To this point, Google Phone has been in a very controlled beta mode with a phased conversion of GrandCentral customers taking place over the past few months. Opening the prospect base beyond the largely geeky community of original GrandCentral users is a major re-focusing of the product marketing efforts. The motivation, of course, is to build more phone-based activity originating or terminating at Google-controlled endpoints. The selling points will be single-number, find-me/follow me phone service.

Today, Phil Wolff at Skype Journal raised the possibility of a totally different scenario. In well less than 140 characters, he asked in a recent Tweet, “Might Google’s millon phone numbers be for Android devices?” With Skype proving to be a popular application on Apple’s iPhone, it makes sense for Google to bake in a Google Voice-based client that extends some of the often-used call management and messaging features to Google-branded phones, as well as netbooks or other appliances with Android as its operating system.

Another interesting scenario might be to incorporate the phone numbers into Web-based ad campaigns. At a minimum, the use of newly assigned numbers can support call tracking, as proof of efficacy. The use of a Google Voice number adds the ability for an individual or small business to treat incoming calls differently based on Caller ID or other factors, as well as the ability for the phone system to take a stab at transcribing voice messages and presenting them as text or email to the businessperson.

This classic Google “soft roll-out” fuels both speculation and anticipation. Time and experience will determine the actual tactics.

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Tags: VoIP, Google Voice, internet2go