Internet giant, Google is reported to be seriously considering becoming a wireless carrier, piggybacking on Sprint and T-Mobile's networks, according to The Information which cited two people familiar with the project. The project, codenamed "Nova," is expected to see Google reaching deals to buy wholesale access to the carriers’ mobile voice and data networks, enabling it to start offering mobile services as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). Google's inroads to the carrier business will certainly intensify if this comes through. The company is already pursuing various initiatives in the telecommunications space. It has provided the gigabit fiber broadband service in the US and is in talks to roll out the same in India, and it has also initiated Project Loon, the balloon-powered WiFi service.
What does this bode for MNOs in US and other service providers globally? It is really too early to tell. Benedict Evans, a long-time mobile analyst and pundit wrote in his twitter "MNOs do MVNO deals to address price, brand or distribution segments that they can't reach themselves. Not to kill their own businesses"
And here goes a list of interesting tweets that bring different perspectives to the story :-)
It would be a lot easier for a Google MVNO to make the US market just look like a normal competitive market than to transform it utterly
— Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) January 21, 2015
I was expecting Apple to do it first by dematerializing the SIM and become a Global MVNO. Google becomes a carrier http://t.co/NgsKRFdxLm
— Laurent Le Pen (@llepen) January 22, 2015
I don't think Google will stay a MVNO either. They're already laying enough fiber to build a backend for a wireless network.
— Colin Cornaby (@colincornaby) January 22, 2015
If Google becoming an MVNO has a similar effect to what their remake of Motorola did for smartphones, consumers win. That's a good thing.
— Ragavan (@ragavan) January 22, 2015
Google MVNO, will it fare better than ESPN, Helio, Ampd, Voce, Virgin Mobile MVNOs? List of dead is long. https://t.co/1MVfywoFa3
— Rafat Ali (@rafat) January 22, 2015
Now if Google becomes an MVNO, all they need is a handset company to offer subsidized hardware to drive usage of their services. Oh wait.
— Ben Bajarin (@BenBajarin) January 21, 2015
Interesting: $TMUS (T-Mobile) seems to really like $GOOG story becoming a wireless carrier https://t.co/iHqAlbpIZ9 pic.twitter.com/ssiraYrb8n
— Doug Lavanture (@DougLavanture) January 21, 2015
