Google Inc has confirmed speculation that it’s entering the mobile phone carrier space as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO.)

Google’s Sundar Pichai said at a speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the tech giant will enter the market in “the coming months” and that the company is working with “existing partners” to create its own MVNO. While not confirming which networks they will use, Pichai added that Google has been in contact with Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Previous reports stated that Google’s MVNO would actually run on Sprint and T-Mobile.

“Carriers in the US are what powers most of our Android phones, and that model works really well for us,” Pichai said.

What form a Google MVNO will take though wasn’t clarified, although there were some hints that it might be some sort of mashup between Wi-Fi and cell networks.

“We are thinking about how WiFi and cell networks work together and how to make that seamless” Pichai is reported to have said.

“The core of Android and everything we do is to take an ecosystem approach and [a network would have] the same attributes. We have always tried to push the boundary with the innovations in hardware and software,”Pichai added. “We want to experiment along those lines. We don’t intend to be a network operator at scale.”

The idea of Google entering the market as a mobile phone service provider isn’t at all fanciful: it already offers internet services such as Google Fiber, and with Project Loon it want’s to offer data services across the world.

Google also unsuccessfully bid on wireless spectrum licenses back in 2007 – 2008.

photo credit: Nexus 7 (2013) via photopin (license)