Move over Verizon, step aside AT&T, Google is set to launch its own wireless service in the United States. The new service will run on both the Sprint and T-Mobile networks, as they have agreed to carry the service and will only work on the Google Nexus 6, for now. The phone will switch between the two networks depending on who has the strongest signal.
Google doesn't plan on the same subscription model that most of the traditional big carriers currently use. The service will allow users to only pay for the data that they have used each month. Currently, most carriers charge a fixed rate for a set amount of data that expires at the end of every month whether it is used or not. Google plans to do away with that. According to a 2013 study by the company Validas, users often end up losing approximately $28 each month on unused data.
This practice has come under pressure in recent years. Upstarts including Republic Wireless and Scratch Wireless have made a name for themselves by offering usage based models and even major carriers such as T-Mobile and AT&T are now allowing their subscribers to roll over their data.
Just like Google Fiber, the new Google wireless service will not be a mainstream offering in the beginning. Sundar Pichai had said at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the wireless service was going to be a small scale experiment and would not disrupt the current wireless service provider industry.
According to Rajeev Chand, head of research at Rutberg & Company, an investment bank focusing on mobile industry, Google's move into wireless services is important as it has the potential to disrupt the wireless industry just like Google Fiber has shaken up the cable and broadband industries.
The Google wireless project has reportedly been in the works for two years and is part of an effort by the technology giant to make Internet access easier for people. The company expects that usage based pricing is expected to make wireless data more affordable to users.
Masayoshi Son, the chairman of Sprint, agreed to carry Google's new wireless network on the condition of volume limits and the ability to renegotiate the contract with Google if their new service becomes too large and overshadows Sprints service in any way.
Google's push further into the telecom world has the potential to inject further uncertainty into the wireless industry that has already been locked in a price war in recent months and could shift the balance of telecom and alter how we all pay for our mobile services in the future.
