Google to become wireless operator -- sort of

Google Vice President Sundar Pichai made an intriguing announcement recently at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress. He said that the company will build out a cellular plan, as a way “to improve connectivity on mobile phones.”

The goal is not, he said, to compete and dominate the cellular market, but rather to experiment with improvements in wireless.

“Our goal here,” said Pichai “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.”

Or, as Adam Clark Estes of Gizmodo said, “... wading into wireless waters would allow Google to do for wireless what Nexus does for hardware: experimentation on a small scale. You can also compare it to what Google Fiber is doing with high-speed internet.”

Google shakes up telecom by expanding into wireless (USA Today Money, Mar. 2, 2015)
 
Google to offer own cellular network plan (AP, Mar. 2, 2015)
 
Google Wants to Become a Wireless Carrier, But It's Not What You Think (Gizmodo, Mar. 2, 2015)