>why Pigeon needed to develop their own system instead of piggybacking on GV
Who said they aren't piggybacking on GV (or somebody else)? They were vague about the tech behind their VOIP. Which is what I would expect from somebody doing exactly what you suggested. They wouldn't be honest about that or they'd be telling their customers they could just use GV instead...
What they've done is found a market and figured out how to market to them. That's huge. If you can solve those problems, you could do it too. Not every business has to make a huge technological leap to be successful.
Who said they aren't piggybacking on GV (or somebody else)? They were vague about the tech behind their VOIP. Which is what I would expect from somebody doing exactly what you suggested. They wouldn't be honest about that or they'd be telling their customers they could just use GV instead...
What they've done is found a market and figured out how to market to them. That's huge. If you can solve those problems, you could do it too. Not every business has to make a huge technological leap to be successful.