Google could lift the curtain as early as Wednesday on a new wireless service in the United States with pay-as-you-go data services which would see the Internet giant partner with Sprint and T-Mobile to carry cellular traffic.
In the works for several years and rumored to be approaching a launch date since January, Google's wireless service is now on the brink of becoming a reality, according to The Wall Street Journal.
But as reported earlier, the new service may initially only work on Google's own Android-based Nexus 6 smartphone, the Journal said, citing unnamed sources.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Android, Chrome, and Google Apps, confirmed during a keynote at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February that Google is planning wireless service offerings in the U.S. and elsewhere. Pichai described the project as a "small scale" concept that wouldn't bring Google into a large-scale competition with major mobile carriers.
But the Journal argued that Google's U.S. service could put pressure on U.S. carriers to change the way they charge customers for data.
The addition of pay-as-you-go data is a "key development" in the rollout of Google's U.S. wireless service, which "could further push carriers to do away with lucrative 'breakage'" data billing structures, according to the newspaper.
Sprint and T-Mobile "have agreed to carry the traffic" on their cellular networks as part of Google's wireless offering, the Journal reported. Subscribers to Google's service would have their calls and other connectivity-dependent tasks "dynamically ... switch between Sprint and T-Mobile networks depending on which carrier has the strongest signal," according to the paper.
Google's wireless service would also leverage Wi-Fi connections when available for Wi-Fi calling and other data transmission to "further reduce subscribers' bills," according to the WSJ.
Meanwhile, the Internet giant is also exploring partnerships in Europe to offer low-cost roaming services as part of its yet-to-be-announced wireless venture, according to reports.