Virtually all mobile roads are dominated by a handful of carriers like AT&T and Verizon. But Google, which has made billions bucking the status quo, is about to change all that. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the search giant is close to cutting deals with handset manufacturers that will bring the full range of Google gadgetry to mobile devices.

Google is expected to announce deals with the likes of South Korea's LG Electronics and Taiwan's HTC Corp., two leading wireless handset manufacturers.

The Google-powered phones will combine popular Google applications such as Maps, YouTube and Gmail. But what has the mobile industry talking is the rumor that Google wants the manufacturers to open their software down to the operating system. If that happens, some industry watchers believe Google could be at the spearhead of an industry revolution that will allow independent developers to create mobile applications. Such a move would free a medium dominated by a handful carriers that so far have had the power to dictate terms.

In May, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Google would build some "inspirational platforms" to encourage independent developers to innovate the mobile space.

In the meantime, Google continues to hedge its bets by attempting to work with carriers to deliver Google tools via the carrier networks. In the U.S. Google is reportedly talking with T-Mobile. Outside the U.S. Google has been linked to France's Telecom Orange and Hutchison Whampoa's 3 U.K.