“Google is preparing to sell mobile phone plans directly to customers and manage their calls and mobile data over a cellular network, according to three people with knowledge of the plans,” Amir Efrati reports for The Information.
“The new service is expected run on Sprint and T-Mobile’s networks, two people familiar with the product say,” Efrati reports. “Google is expected to reach deals to buy wholesale access to those carriers’ mobile voice and data networks, making it a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, they say.”
Full article (paywall) here.
“Becoming a U.S. mobile carrier with Sprint/T-Mobile’s help risks upsetting AT&T and Verizon, who still tower over the local telecom landscape,” Eric Jhonsa reports for Seeking Alpha News. “However, it also gives Google a chance to experiment with novel/low-cost service plans, perhaps with the hope that other carriers (in the U.S. and elsewhere) will follow suit.”
Jhonsa reports, “Google also might be betting Android is too well-entrenched at this point for AT&T and/or Verizon to respond too harshly.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Among the places where Android is the least entrenched in the United States of America. Verizon and AT&T should respond by throwing their full weight behind Apple’s iPhone.
Now, who’s up for letting Google, of all companies, “manage” their calls and mobile data?
Um … NO
There is nothing to keep Google from discontinuing that same service just like they did with GOOG-411 when the extract the data they need from it.
So…google would now know everyone I have called or sent a text message, how often and how long i talk to them, in addition to already reading all my emails. No thanks, i don’t care if it’s free.
It’s much worse than that. They can easily use voice recognition to scan ALL of your phone calls for key words and add it to the vast wealth of your personal data that they sell to their customers, the advertisers.
Now Apple will need to put a PRIVACY INFRINGEMENT indicator on the iPhone that lets you know when you are entering a phone call with somebody who’s on Google’s MVNO.
Why do you think they even offered GOOG-411? To develop strong voice recognition tools. And when they had that down reasonably well, they discontinued the service. In Google Voice, they offer you the chance to improve their transcription accuracy. You think that’s so they can offer good customer service?
You forgot eavesdropping
“Yeah sorry I didn’t respond to you right away. I tried to, but my phone made me watch an ad first.”
Yeah just what we need, Google monitorng our private phone calls…
No one trusts Google.
My phone rang and I heard, “You mentioned to a friend you were considering an affair. Can we make a few suggestions?
If I caught google “managing” my phone data, I’d call the feds.
Since T-Mobile roaming is on AT&T will that mean that the MVNO will do likewise? The T-Mobile footprint away from he Interstates and big cities is kind of thin.
I trust Google even less than Microsoft. And Google is equally blind to the poison of its own brand. Like Microsoft’s delusion, they think putting the “Google” label on a product increases sales. The opposite is true, in the real world, Like “Ford Sync” no longer being “powered by Microsoft.” Marketing poison… Google is just a few steps behind Microsoft in “toxicity.”