TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is citing unnamed sources who say that Google is actually working on a Google-branded phone, not just offering the Android operating system to existing hardware manufacturers. However, it's likely the phone will be ghost-manufactured, as it were, by an established company.

What's most interesting about this new rumor is that it alleges that the Google Phone will actually be VoIP-only, making calls over a 3G (or maybe ultimately 4G) data network instead of over the normal cellular voice network. The sources say AT&T is among the companies bidding to carry the device. That's rather amusing since AT&T has been against allowing VoIP over its data network on traditional smartphones.

While TechCrunch's sensational headline declares "the Google Phone is very real," the article admits that some of the sources are pretty thin, so we'll see how this pans out. Here's some fuel for the fire, though: Google has been pushing its Google Voice service, which already provides phone numbers to customers, and the company also just bought VoIP company Gizmo5.

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