Google Wireless Aims to Change Mobile Business

Could a Google mobile service lead to lower prices, better features for cell connection?

Google is reportedly planning on selling phone service using Sprint and T-Mobile's networks. 

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Google Fiber is showing network providers the possibilities of building new high-speed broadband, and now the tech giant has confirmed its next step to shake up the telecom business will be to launch its own small-scale mobile wireless service in the U.S.

The tech giant will release more details “in the coming months” about its plan to offer a mobile Wi-Fi network, Google’s Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai announced during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Google’s Android operating system is used on 80 percent of phones shipped around the world, so the tech giant hopes providing its own network will allow it to “push the boundary of what's next” Pichai said, according to a live blog of the speech compiled by The Verge.

“I think we're at the stage where we need to think of hardware, software, and connectivity together,” he said. “Especially with things like watches. We don't intend to be a carrier at scale, and we're working with existing partners. You'll see some of our ideas come to fruit in the next few months.”

[READ: What Net Neutrality Means for Netflix, Xbox and Skype]

Pichai said the company has spoken about the plan with Verizon and AT&T. Industry insiders have said in previous reports that Google's effort to be a mobile virtual network operator -- codenamed "Nova" -- has planned to directly sell phone service using the networks of smaller telecom competitors Sprint and T-Mobile. This led to a question during the event about whether Google’s plan aims to push for lower wireless prices, but Pichai dodged the question.

“We're trying to show innovations, like calls automatically reconnecting if someone drops on one end,” he said of the mobile network plan.

The quality broadband offered by Google Fiber in a handful of U.S. cities has sparked discussions about lower prices and improved service among network providers, so a Google mobile network may have the same effect among mobile service providers. Similar services like Virgin Mobile offer contract-free plans, so Google’s service could be attractive for people looking for simpler, less expensive access to mobile if the tech giant uses that model.

Google’s plan to add connectivity to boost its software and hardware projects extend beyond Fiber and into the skies. Project Loon, announced by Google in 2013, aims to connect remote regions to the Internet by beaming network signals from high-altitude balloons. The tech giant last year also acquired Titan Aerospace, which makes solar-powered drones, and in September requested permission from the Federal Communications Commission to test fly drones in New Mexico that could one day “provide Internet connections in remote areas.”

Commenting on the progress of Project Loon, Pichai said the Internet connecting balloons are “up in the air for 6 months at a time."

“Project Titan will take its first major steps in coming few months,” he added