Google has reportedly reached a deal with Sprint to sell wireless service later this year
It’s probably not the news many of you wanted to hear, but after a report yesterday claimed Google was in talks with both T-Mobile and Sprint on becoming the latest MVNO on the block, Bloomberg is now reporting that Google may have already struck a deal with Sprint on selling wireless service via their network. Sources didn’t go into detail on specifics, but apparently SoftBank president Masayoshi Son was the one who facilitated talks between the two companies.
SoftBank, as you know, announced a merger with Sprint back in 2012, where it was later made official in July of the following year. Operating as an MVNO, Google would be buying Sprint’s network capacity at wholesale, in turn selling it directly to consumers sometime later this year. But why is Google just now getting into the wireless market? That part is still a little unclear, but it seems it could be yet another way for Google to get even more people online and viewing their mobile ads.
Let’s hope their wireless plans are low enough that — even with the prospect of running on Sprint’s network — those on a budget simply can’t resist. No word on what Google’s plans are with T-Mobile, but hopefully it wont be too much longer before everything is official.