Earlier on this year when rumors started spreading that Google would be looking to unleash its very own wireless service, it garnered plenty of attention especially for being something that users of Google products and services have been hoping for over a long period of time. Those rumors soon became reality when Google’s head of Android and Chrome Sundar Pichai announced that Google would be launching a wireless service in the near future and that it could be here in the next few months. According to the Wall Street Journal Google could be looking to launch their wireless service as early as Wednesday, April 22nd, which is consequently much earlier than most people have probably anticipated.
While the latest development about Google’s MVNO service is that it will possibly arrive this week, past details found within the apk of an app called Project Fi which had leaked out before this new information shed some light on how the service might act and what it may offer to consumers. From those leaks it appears that Google’s wireless service may offer customers the chance to pay for only the data they use, rather than for a hard locked amount that’s been predetermined with the service. Plans would presumably come with unlimited talk and text in addition to the data that customers choose, and should consumers pay a certain amount for a larger data bucket but not use it all, they would essentially be refunded for the amount of data that wasn’t touched.
While these are just speculations at the moment and haven’t been confirmed by Google, having such plan options would set it apart enough from other carriers to gain some fast traction and attention, and could cause other larger carriers to take notice of its efforts. Both Sprint and T-Mobile are said to be the go between for Google’s wireless service plans, and according to the source the Nexus 6 will be the only initial device to work with the service from the start, which is a rumor that’s been talked about prior to now. Having both the nation’s third and fourth wireless carriers handling the traffic will allow phones to swap back and forth between whichever network is best suited for the area regarding signal strength, but only when and if a WiFi network is not available to handle the calls, messages, and data as Google plans to use WiFi networks for the service as well. Google wants to make the internet a more approachable and accessible feature for consumers, and with the introduction of a wireless service plan that aims to utilize WiFi networks whenever possible to handle all data traffic, it could be a move that helps to force other carriers to alter their own services to match the competition.