Google could be on the verge of unveiling a wireless service, at least according to the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper claims that this new service will bring interesting options to US subscribers, such as pay-as-you-use data charges.
The biggest change from regular American wireless carriers is that Google will be offering users the chance to only pay for the data that they have used. This means that those who use less data will be charged less than power users; it also appears to indicate that there will not be any data caps set each month. Data caps are often a point of contention for users as there is usually unspent data at the end of each month. Several US-based carriers are already allowing users to roll their data over to the following month, but a pay-as-you-use scheme may be more favourable to consumers.
Mountain View has had a wireless service on the cards for a couple of years now, and the fact that it is introducing one soon comes as no surprise. Google already operates its Google Fiber broadband service that provides gigabit speeds to those lucky enough to be living in its coverage areas. Fiber has been slowly expanding across America, although it is still being implemented on a city-by-city basis.
Unlike Google Fiber, this wireless service will not use it’s own network and infrastructure. Instead, Google will be relying on Sprint and T-Mobile networks for service. Essentially, Google has an agreement to resell service to other networks. Subscribers to Google’s service will be able to automatically switch between Sprint and T-Mobile connections, depending on which has the stronger signal strength. Calls are also expected to be routed through WiFi and the internet when possible to cut down on charges.
Access to Google’s wireless service will initially be confined to the Nexus 6 device, and it is unknown if Google has plans to include other devices in the near future.
Any excitement about a potential large scale Google wireless network had already been dampened during the original announcement of the Google wireless service. Google executive Sundar Pichai had already clarified that this would be a small scale experiment, targeting a very small number of customers.
Google is expected to make an announcement later today, although there has been no official confirmation from the internet giant. If anything, it has been busy with its Earth Day Doodles and celebration instead.
[Source: The Wall Street Journal]
