Google’s Sundar Pichai confirms plans to launch an MVNO wireless carrier and their motive behind it
Before we had our bit of morning fun over at the Android booth, Google’s Sundar Pichai — who heads the Chrome and Android teams — took to the stage at the Mobile World Congress opening keynote. The full talk was quite interesting and chock full of discussion about the now and the future.
Most of what you care about is in the future. Thankfully Pichai confirmed a few different rumors we’d been hearing since 2014 and earlier. The biggest confirmation was that Google certainly is exploring opportunities to introduce a new wireless service that leverages WiFi technology to facilitate ultra affordable mobile service.
Google’s not trying to become the next Verizon, nor do they expect to. Instead, the company will look to work with those carriers in an effort to help push connectivity and network stability forward.
Solving issues like seamless hand-offs between WiFi and cellular and the ability to have two calls automatically reconnect in the event of a drop are just a couple of the things Google wants to explore in their venture. We know it’s not purely about money — Google’s revenue stream is healthy enough as is — so we know their motives are fueled by their never-ending desire to innovate.
Google didn’t confirm who they’d be working with to get this off the ground (rumors suggest Sprint and T-Mobile are likely candidates), but the company will hopefully have more formal details to share at Google I/O later this year.