2015/3/17 1:21:23
Source: Web
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Google’s
imminent wireless network may have perturbed carriers like AT&T and
Verizon, but to start with the new service will only be available on a
single brand of phone, Google’s latest Nexus 6, according to a report in
the WSJ, though it
will become available as early as late March.
Google’s service
will work by switching between accessible Wi-Fi networks and the
cellular networks of Sprint and T-Mobile. That requires careful coordination
between a phone’s hardware and software, hence why Google will initiate the
service on a phone where it has more control over the software, the report adds.
Manufacturers
typically have greater influence on the software that runs Android phones,
which would make that handoff between networks harder to coordinate.
The Nexus 6,
made by Motorola, was said by Google executives to have been very well received
when it went on sale last year, so much so that the companyunderestimated
demand for the device, which costs between $650 and $700 in the U.S.
off contract.
Google’s No. 2
executive Sundar Pichai confirmed
Monday that Google would be introducing a wireless service in the United
States, though he did not elaborate on which phones would offer the service.
He told an
audience at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that Google didn’t intend
to become a network operator at scale.
“We are working
with carrier partners. You’ll see our answer in coming months,” he said.
“Our goal is to drive a set of innovations we think should arrive, but do it a
smaller scale, like Nexus devices, so people will see what we’re doing.”
It may also be
telling that Huawei is rumoured to be
building Google’s next iteration of the Nexus Phone, given the Chinese
smartphone vendor’s expertise in making networking infrastructure.
(Credit: Web)