Google has announced it will soon offer a cellular network plan in a bid to ‘bridge the gap’ between Internet services and mobile device software it dominates.
“You will see us announce it in the coming months” said Google’s Vice President Sundar Pachai – saying the mega-provider is in the development stages of creating a cellular plan.
“I think we are at a stage where it is important to think about hardware, software and connectability together,” said Pachai. He went on to say “We want to be able to experiment along those lines.”
Pichai called Google’s plan to offer cellular services “a project” insisting that the Internet company isn’t a threat to traditional telephone and Internet service providers. He also compared Google’s latest move to that of its new line of Nexus smartphones – which Google intends to use with other smartphone makers, in essence creating innovations in the world of mobile hardware.
“We don’t intend to be a network operator at scale,” he said. “Our goal here is to drive a set of innovations which we think the ecosystem should evolve and hopefully will get traction. Again, we will do it on a small enough scale so that, just like Nexus devices, people see what we are doing and hopefully carrier partners think our ideas are good.”
Google plans to offer a way to provide a seamless Internet connection even when a device is moving from Wi-Fi to cellular coverage without a glitch.
Pachai said Google is also working on “Android Pay,” a mobile payment system much like “Apple Pay,” which will work on a number of Android-powered devices.