Google Voice, the innovative invite-only telephone communication control service, is readying a iPhone version of its mobile phone app, which just became available on Tuesday for Android OS-based phones and Blackberries.

But will Apple and AT&T let Google sell such an app without hobbling it?

For instance, Google Voice offers free SMS services that appear to come from one's Google number rather than one's mobile phone number. That means users could text all they like, without paying AT&T $20 a month. That money is virtually all profit for the telecom giant, since the messages use almost no bandwidth and even travel on a special channel separate from voice or data.

So the motive is clear.

The answer to whether they will is unclear, but history suggests it's a strong possibility.

AT&T and Apple together have blocked video applications that compete with approved ones and forced the low cost phone calling company Skype to disable its most powerful feature — free phone calls using a phone's data connection — if it wanted to be included in the iPhone marketplace controlled by Apple.

AT&T has said that it expects Apple to block products that compete with its services. It puts the kibosh on some other apps that might be hard on a network — Slingbox's video application for one, though it is fine with other streaming media apps, like Major League Baseball's, for one.

Such practices are part of the reason that Congress, public interest groups and the FCC have all been looking skeptically at U.S. mobile carriers, wondering if they need to be regulated more closely.

A Google spokesperson declined to answer specific questions about a potential app, but did say that it was "working with Apple to bring similar functionality [as the Android/Blackberry apps] to iPhone users."

Still in an invite-only beta, Google Voice lets users combine work, home and mobile phones all under a single Google number. Voicemail can be sent to all of the phones, all calling histories are combined, voicemails are turned into voice files and also machine-transcribed, and users can set custom call handling rules for every person in their address book. Users can also make free conference calls, record calls and even switch phones during a call.

Apple, per usual, ignored a request for comment.

AT&T declined to comment on whether it considered the app as competition or if it was even talking to Apple about it.

In the meantime, Google says the Google Voice mobile website is optimized for the iPhone, and that it "will continue to improve the user experience for the iPhone users."

There's also already an unofficial Google Voice app for the iPhone called GV Mobile.

Photo: Flickr/Cloneofsnake

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Photo: Flickr/CloneofSnake