I appreciate - I suspected as much based on the Slate article. Even before reading it, I was constantly surprised that Google hadn't announced Voice would cost money. And Voice is hardly central to Google's apparent mission, the way you correctly note Calendar seems central.

I'm trying to estimate how much longer it will last - i.e. when I should start looking for a different service. Given the low likelihood of five-year survival, and that the product is about five years old, I should probably get a move on it.