Google getting in on wireless carrying as tech giant envelops the world

22 Jan 2015

Android smartphone

Internet titan Google’s latest venture appears to be providing mobile phone plans after striking deals with US telecoms companies Sprint and T-Mobile.

The details behind what Google will and will not provide have not yet been released, but it makes a degree of sense for the company to now play a key role in how many of its own services are delivered to its customers.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Google will essentially wholesale buy, and then resell Sprint and T-Mobile’s wireless services as part of its own package.

Apparently its reputation as a disruptive force in the communications environment meant that the deals were not easy to strike up, but Google is pressing ahead with a clever and affordable way of providing wireless access to the masses.

An alternate route would be to build an entire infrastructure, itself, to do so. Something nobody would be willing to do at this early stage.

Imminent arrival beckons

The Information claims the project, codenamed ‘Nova’, “is led by longtime Google executive Nick Fox”.

“A launch this year seems likely. Fox had previously looked at starting the service last fall, and some employees have already tested it.”

Google’s entrance to this industry will be an interesting development in the ‘net neutrality’ debate. By providing the wireless service that helps transmit its own Android software, there will inevitably be suspicion of whether or not it prioritises certain services over others.

Either way, it’s sure to shake up the US mobile-phone industry.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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