Google is set to unveil its new US wireless service this week, adding spice to an already highly competitive telecoms space. The new telco will resell network access to Sprint and T-Mobile.
At Mobile World Congress in March, Google’s head of products Sundar Pichai said that a Google-branded mobile network launch was imminent.
It is often Google’s strategy to make devices like smartphones and tablets as well as services like 1Gbps broadband available in collaboration with existing players, not to compete with them but rather to influence the direction of the market and technology in terms of how it believes things should evolve.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Google’s new MVNO could launch as early as today (22 April).
In March, Pichai said that the plan is to launch as a mobile virtual network operator, piggy-backing on one of the existing US mobile carriers like AT&T, Verizon or Sprint.
“We don’t intend to be a network operator at scale and we are actually working with carrier partners,” Pichai said.
“You will see us announce it in the coming months but the goal is to drive innovations that the market will allow and to do it at a scale that people will see what we are doing. If carrier partners think they are good they will take them on board.”
Mobile network image via Shutterstock
