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Reuters is reporting on rumors of a potential Verizon partnership with Google on the as of yet unannounced gPhone. They say that “people familiar with the matter” told them on Tuesday that Google in in active talks with Verizon Wireless about putting Google applications on the phones it offers. This comes hot on the heels of rumors from the Wall Street Journal on a gPhone release in two weeks.

It sounds as if, from the various quotes in the Reuters piece, that a deal has not yet been reached, but they’re quite hopeful one will be reached.

The beginning of October, I had spoken with my contact inside Google (aka “Deep Throat“), and he told me in no uncertain terms that T-Mobile was the designated mobile operator for the gPhone in the USA, possibly worldwide. Of course, at the time the T-Mobile spokesperson said: “…At this time we are not providing details regarding the availability of our network or future advanced data services.”

I currently have calls out to both “Deep Throat” and my contact at T-Mobile (as well as Verizon), but I don’t expect to hear anything back until the morning.

Given what I know (or learned at the beginning of the month… I understand things can change), I’m slightly skeptical of this story of Verizon partnering up on the gPhone, but not ruling it out.

When Verizon Chief Operating Officer Denny Striql was contacted by Reuters for confirmation on the story, he said that the operator talks to a lot of companies including Google, but did not elaborate. I have no doubt that every operator, at some point, is in talks with Google (aren’t they all pursuing different legal actions with each other over this 700 MHz spectrum?), and what COO Striql says is far from a ringing confirmation on the story.

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