Google confirmed plans to launch its own wireless service earlier this week during Mobile World Congress. Senior Vice President and Android boss Sundar Pichai said the service would be a relatively small scale undertaking and according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, truer words were never spoken.
The publication claims the service could launch as early as the end of March but only on select handsets. And by select handsets, I mean just the Nexus 6.
Google’s wireless service, which will piggyback on networks from Sprint and T-Mobile, will also work over Wi-Fi. It’ll determine which of the three networks have the best service at any given time and location based on the current task the user is trying to perform to offer the best service.
To pull off this real-time analysis requires close coordination between hardware and software – something Google enjoys from its Nexus program.
Pichai said earlier this week that Google’s intentions weren’t to launch a full-on wireless network. Instead, the company wants to drive a set of innovations that they believe will influence the wireless industry in a positive way. It’s the same thinking behind the Nexus program which Google has successfully used to showcase technology and what it believes are better ways of doing things.
Whether or not Google plans to bring the service to existing devices outside of the Nexus 6 is unknown (it may not even be possible). Moving forward, however, I suspect that all new Nexus devices will be compatible with Google’s network.
Above all, pricing and service plans will likely be key to the program’s success.
https://www.techspot.com/news/59970-google-upcoming-wireless-service-may-only-compatible-nexus.html
