“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?