I think that the real issue here is not so much that google wants to compete with the mobile phone carriers, but that google is in the odd position of actually being able to change the nature of their industry, and do so in google's favor. IIRC this was a huge part of the argument being made against google early this year at the Mobile World Congress in Spain. The issue was that Apple had upended the market by teaching the mobile phone companies how to build a smartphone. They in turn had failed to anticipate the type of use that people would give the phones and the type of demands that use would put on their systems. Still the damage was contained because only a handfull of companies carried the Iphone and no other prroduct was a comparable. enter google with Android, and the new batch of very powerful android phones. All of a sudden, every carrier has access to a competing platform to the iphone. however, Google is offering services for free that these companies charge for (including telephony via google voice), and to boot the growth in popularity of android means that these companies will soon be experiencing the tremendous demands on their networks that those who carried the iphone were experiencing. The mobile companies are in the very expensive position of having to expand and modernize, but they don't want to do it if it means that Google gets to benefit for free at their expense. As a result they are dragging their feet and trying to work ways in which to either avoid modernization, slow it down, save some of their charge for services, and derive some sort of revenue out of google. The chants that google could not be allowed to take over their industry pretty much reflected this.
On the other hand, google is very much aware of this and realizes what is going on. It stands to reason that they would hedge their bets by creating some sort of independent google controlled service provider. I mean, If I were google, I'd have a huge incentive to perfect google voice, and then develop a 4g network that handled nothing but data. I could route my calls through that network, run my free services, and probably do it all cheaper than having to rely on profit and service sharing ventures with mobile carriers.
What I find interesting, is how mobile carriers expect to make their point. I mean yes google is expanding into their business, but lets face it, no one company dominates the business now, google only offers an operating system that is TODAY in fewer than 5% of all phones, and they offer no actual system access. As I see it, any complaints are being based on the expected growth of google android into the dominant platform, and how such dominance might possible put google in a position to dictate future terms to mobile carriers. While there is some well founded reasons for such concern, at this point, as I see it, it is all speculation. I don't see where they would have grounds to prevent google's acquisition of this company, based on current performance.
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