The basic phone service goes for $20 a month and customers will only be charged for the amount of cellular data that they use each month, instead of a flat rate. Each gigabyte of data will cost $10 a month. Meaning that a customer could get back the money of any unused gigabyte for the month.
The Internet giant described the project as an opportunity to introduce "new ideas" and "to push the boundaries of what's possible.
" Rather than building its own network, Google is leasing space on cellular towers built by Sprint and T-Mobile. Project Fi is supposed to switch over automatically to an available Wi-Fi network if that is running at a higher speed than the cellular alternatives. Phones on the Fi service will switch between the two networks depending on which signal is stronger.
Using Wi-Fi networks to route calls and data is also expected to lower subscribers' cellular bills. "Project Fi aims to put you on the best network wherever you go," Nick Fox, Google's vice president of communications products, wrote in a blog post. Another key benefit of Project Fi: Customers pay only for the amount of data they use each month.
Fi comes with one plan at one price, Google says. For $20 a month, subscribers get the basics: talk, text, Wi-Fi tethering and international coverage. It's $10 per gigabyte of data after that for cellular data while in the U.S. and abroad. The plan refunds any data you don't use. Subscribers can also talk and text from their phone numbers on any phone, tablet or laptop. Commenting on the news in a blog post, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said: "Project Fi is going to make people think differently about wireless — and I love that.
Anything that shakes up the industry things as they are is a good thing — for both US wireless customers and T-Mobile." Fi has been in the works for about two years. This is Google's first move into the wireless industry but its second move into telecom. It offers broadband Internet service in a handful of cities in the U.S.
The competition in those markets has pushed rivals such as Comcast and AT&T to speed up their Internet service. The biggest drawback: Fi is available only on the Nexus 6. "In the near term, Project Fi will only be available on Nexus devices given the challenging set of hardware and software requirements to enable the Fi Network experience," Google spokeswoman Chelsea Maughan said.
Key Features:
- It’s called “Project Fi”
- It’s for Nexus 6 owners only, at first.
- It’s invite only now. You can sign up for an invite here.
- It’s built on top of Sprint and T-Mobile’s networks
- No contracts
- Subscribers pay $20 for unlimited talk/text, and then pay $10 per gig of data. So a 3GB plan would be $30 on top of that $20, coming out to a total of $50.
- You only pay for what you use, but in sort of strange way: if you pay for 3GB of data per month ($30) but only use 1.5GB, you’ll get $15 back at the end of the month.
- It’s all tied into Google Hangouts, which will allow you to place calls from your number on any Hangouts-enabled tablet or laptop in addition to your phone.
- WiFi Tethering is included.
- This is what their US Coverage map currently looks like.
