Verizon trademark hints at mobile, landline combination

A Verizon Communications trademark filed May 9 could hint at a potential move from the carrier to integrate fixed and mobile voice services under the brand name One Talk.
Here’s the language used in the trademark application: “Telecommunications services, namely, providing telephone services; and providing a unified system of integrated fixed and mobile voice services where landline and mobile communications devices can take the same calls, use the same telephone numbers and share the same calling features such as voice and text messaging.”
Website Phandroid broke the story and provided some commentary: “We imagine the company will require a special home phone to take full advantage of the feature, though it’s possible the call mirroring options could be made available no matter which phone you use. Although many people have moved to mobile phones for their primary communication needs, there’s still a big crowd of folks who subscribe to home phone service, else availability of those services wouldn’t be as plentiful as they are today. For those people, using your phone while you’re at home doesn’t need to be a watered down, ancient experience — make it just as smart and convenient as if you were using a smartphone, and we’re happy.”
In March, Google announced its Fiber Phone service, which builds on the Google Fiber Internet and TV service to create a triple-play service offering. The Fiber Phone service costs $10 per month and includes unlimited local and nationwide calling; option to keep or pick phone number; call waiting; caller ID; and voicemail transcription. For international calling, the same rate structure used for Google Voice – six cents per minute to France and one cent per minute to India, for example.
In a blog post announcing the service, Google Fiber Product Manager John Shriver-Blake billed Fiber Phone as a way to retain access to a landline while maintaining mobility.
“Your Fiber Phone number lives in the cloud, which means that you can use it on almost any phone, tablet or laptop,” Shriver-Blake wrote. “It can ring your landline when you’re home, or your mobile device when you’re on-the-go.”
Addressing the idea of a multi-use number available on multiple devices, AT&T earlier this year came out with NumberSync. The service lets your mobile number work with multiple devices and lets a user make and receive calls from the synced device of their choice.