Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) mobile ambitions have been moved along in past weeks with its Sprint WiMAX deal and its interest in 700MHz frequency bands being sold off by the FCC. But if you take a closer look at the patents Google is filing, the search giant plans to go much further than this, claims one observer.

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Stephen Arnold, a Kentucky-based analyst who has been tracking Google with trainspotting accuracy for a number of years, has found 17 telephony-related patents and patent applications by Google and another dozen with a tangential link, says an article in Red Herring. Even if Google does not plan to commercialize all those bells and whistles, it still means that “Eleven to 12 percent of Google’s innovation effort since 1999 is in telco,” says the analyst.

What’s next on the agenda? The analyst believes Google is working on a new kind of “doubly lucky” predictive search for mobile devices. This will take users directly to search results, incorporating location and time of day into the findings, and will even use a form of predictive typing to guess at what the user wants to find—not unlike predictive word programs like T9 that are used in SMS. All of this will be in aid of reducing the time it takes to engage with the Internet on a mobile, he says in an interview with Red Herring.

The rumors around Google working on a mobile device get picked up again, too. Arnold says Google is “very likely” to have a prototype handset employing the new search service ready within six to eight months, which it will start shopping around to mobile operators.