UPDATED 00:34 EDT / APRIL 23 2015

NEWS

Meh: Google launches disappointing Project Fi MVNO

project fiGoogle Inc. Wednesday launched Project Fi, its long expected wireless service, but despite the hype leading prior to launch, it’s fairly disappointing.

First with the basics: as rumored Project Fi customers will access the T-Mobile, Sprint, and Wifi networks, seamlessly switching between the three. Google is hyping this feature as being revolutionary, and while the inclusion of Wifi is something new, roaming between networks isn’t.

Price wise Project Fi is fairly competitive with plans on other networks, with customers expected to pay $20 for unlimited domestic calls and text, then $10 per gigabyte of data they want, and unused data does rollover. International calls are charged at 20 cents a minute, which isn’t particularly cheap.

On the bright side is free global data roaming, with Google saying that Fi users will have mobile data coverage in 120 countries worldwide, although only on 3G with speeds of 256kpbs. Calls made while overseas though are charged as if they were international calls, though at 20 cents per minute this makes the service far cheaper than global roaming call rates charged by most carriers.

Even if the general cost of the Fi plan is competitive but not mind shatteringly cheap, the global roaming aspect will appeal to those who travel regularly, but here comes the catch: you can only sign up to, and become a Google Fi customer if you own a Nexus 6.

The revolution will apparently only take place on Goole labeled handset at a time.

It’s not exactly clear why it’s only available on Nexus 6, with Google only saying that the handset was developed “..with Motorola and is the first smartphone that supports the hardware and software to work with our service.”

The software is an Android thing, so it’s strange that software would be cited, but hardware? Google doesn’t specify what secret ingredients lie in the Nexus 6 that would make it be the only handset capable of supporting the setup, but certainly when it was launched there seemed to be nothing in the phone that couldn’t be found on other high-end Android handsets.

Many would have wanted Project Fi to shake up the mobile market as Google has with Google Fiber, and yet what we see here is more reminiscent of a Google Labs experiment that has been open to Nexus 6 owners in some sort of “friends with benefits” style offering.

If and when it becomes available to more Android devices, we’ll revisit the call, but for now Google’s Project Fi is a disappointment.

If you’re one of a proverbial few who qualify, you can request an invite to join Project Fi here. 


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