The danger of big events and big news stories is that other interesting industry developments get buried. Such was the case at CTIA Wireless last week: the news of the mega-merger by AT&T and T-Mobile USA took all the limelight, and (understandably) dominated the news agenda in the days after it was announced.

Generating fewer headlines was Sprint’s alliance with Google, which will see the operator offering an “integrated Google voice experience on all Sprint phones.” Customers will be able to use their Sprint phone numbers to access a full range of Google Voice features, including routing calls to fixed phone numbers and an integrated voicemail service.

For an operator to work with a company such as Google, which is widely perceived as a significant threat in the most lucrative areas in mobile, and to endorse a service that has previously been seen by many as a threat to core voice revenue, is intriguing. At the very least it reflects changing telco attitudes, as the previous business model is swept away by new-entrants from the internet world.

For many years, one of the received wisdoms of the mobile industry has been that mobile operators are focused on protecting their lucrative voice businesses, which have generated the lion’s share of the revenue. However, as has already been noted, data revenue is increasing as a proportion of the total, making voice a less significant part of the business, as price pressure has seen voice call costs decreasing sharply.

Obviously that does not mean that voice has now become an insignificant part of the business, and that operators should now focus entirely on new revenue streams. But it does mean that voice has now become another part of a portfolio of services, rather than the stand-alone generator of revenue. This shift could lead to operators becoming more open to alternative voice solutions, in order to deliver value-added voice services that may be more appealing to consumers. And this could lead to benefits in terms of increased revenue and increased loyalty from subscribers.

Through its partnership with Google, Sprint will be able to offer its customers a more appealing set of value-added voice services, powered by a product that is already gaining some ground in the US market, while leveraging the infrastructure and development work of its partner. And by integrating more closely with the Google services, Sprint can position itself as the partner of choice for customers wanting to use Google Voice.

Last year, Russ Shaw, VP of mobile at Skype, said that for operators a relationship with companies such as Skype can create a win-win situation, stating that its work with operator 3 UK had shown that customers using Skype services tended to churn less than those who did not. By integrating Skype fully with the operator services, the companies have been able to offer customers a much more compelling user experience.

But Shaw also notes there are a number of key areas to address, including who owns the customer data, and who controls the user experience. This will be even more important with Google’s relationship with Sprint: unlike Skype, which is focused on VoIP services, Google has a whole portfolio of products it could cross-sell to Sprint customers, in competition to products from the operator itself.

Interestingly, it is (largely) the smaller operators who have welcomed outsiders into their business more readily. For example, Sprint is the third-placed operator in a US market dominated by two much-larger rivals – Verizon Wireless and AT&T. And Skype is working with 3 UK, the smallest player in this market, and KDDI in Japan, which lags market leader NTT Docomo – although Skype’s relationship with Verizon Wireless in the US indicates that this rule does not always apply. 3 is an interesting example in that it was also one of the first operators to open its arms to third-parties in the mobile data world, breaking beyond the walled-garden to provide customers with access to a wide range of internet services.

Indeed, it perhaps makes some sense that it is the companies that have something to prove which are more open to alternative solutions – after all, they generally have less to lose, but stand to gain from any additional differentiation they can create.

Analyst firm Ovum has taken a largely positive view on the Sprint/Google relationship: “This is Google as voice applications and infrastructure provider to Sprint – as partner rather than competitor in the carrier’s area of core competence. This way, Sprint gets to keep its hold on the all-important telephone number while offering a more compelling service to its subscribers – even more important now in the face of AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Equally, Google benefits from deriving additional revenue from its considerable investments in applications infrastructure that is not dependent on advertising.”

One area where the telcos are following the established model is in pursuing exclusive deals, in order to position services as a competitive differentiator. Sprint said it is “the first and only carrier to offer this [Google Voice] capability,” while Skype is also working closely with a handful of partners to deliver fully-integrated services.