The real issue issue is here;
> securely send money to friends and family _in the U.S._
Google Voice it's the same problem - most of the world can't use it. Instead of 80/20 this is 20/80
> securely send money to friends and family _in the U.S._
Google Voice it's the same problem - most of the world can't use it. Instead of 80/20 this is 20/80
Telecommunication services is also a legal and regulatory minefield - one that requires less capital up-front, but just as much (if not more) bureaucratic headaches.
I'm sure they're working on it, and it's either in-progress or not worth it.
(e.g.: in the US, if you are a phone line provider, you get money for incoming calls from other providers when they call you - to the point that something like GoogleVoice could turn a profit just from those fees (unlikely, but possible - many conference call services were run like that).
In most of the world, these termination fees are not enough to provide meaningful income that makes a GoogleVoice profitable (or at the very least, not very expensive) to run.