Project Fi: bringing about change from within
As announced at the Barcelona World Mobile Congress and previously leaked by Android Police, Google has announced its entry into the Mobile Virtual Network Operator market through Project Fi, which it describes as a “network of networks” that aims to set the benchmark for what a mobile service provider should be like in the times we live in.
Mobile services are the subject of more consumer complaints than any other in every country of the world. The launch of an MVNO shouldn’t really be news: there are any number of them already, entry barriers aren’t particularly high, and the idea of buying capacity from traditional operators (in this case from Sprint and T-Mobile — of the four biggies, Verizon and AT&T, the latter has just announced its first quarter results, have opted out) is hardly provocative.
That said, when the company launching an MVNO is Google, then people tend to pay more attention, and not so much for the why, as for the how. The initiative is limited to Nexus 6 users in the United States, which significantly reduces administration and service difficulties, and is conceived as a hybrid service over which data travels in real time through the different available connections (WiFi, LTE Spring and T-Mobile cellular networks combined, and even roaming when abroad) with tethering included, and a fixed rate plan of $20 for the basic service and $10 a month for each GB consumed, with a refund for any amount not used. The price is carefully aggressive, indicating that we may be talking about a service that Google aims to use to force prices down in the market.
Google’s entry into this market has many potential implications. We’re talking about a cloud-based service to which we can connect a range of devices eventually and work with our data plan from any smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Restricting the service to the Nexus 6 in the US market, the only one where Apple dominates, could increase the popularity of Android, particularly among more sophisticated users. For the operators, who are simply looking to increase the use and profitability of their networks, the move brings competitive pressure, and that is without taking into account possible moves in the future as Google continues progressing with connectivity initiatives linked to its own network, either city-to-city or further into the future through projects that at the moment seem risky (but already tangible) such as Project Loon.
The launch of Project Fi is good news for consumers: an operator offering advanced features, that will develop at Google speed rather than the typical teleco, and that will put other traditional players under a lot of pressure, and with greater room for maneuver than the usual MVNOs. We can expect this experiment to be limited to the US market for a while — forging the alliances to create an MVNO is no mean feat — but we will soon see how this begins to set a trend.
(En español, aquí)
