Google reportedly is in talks with Hutchison Whampoa about roaming agreements allowing its U.S. mobile customers to talk, text and use the Internet internationally, erasing the difference between local and international tariffs.
The deal presumably would be reciprocal, allowing Hutchison Whampoa Three customers to roam on Google’s U.S. network without additional charge.
If that is correct, it is likely Google would seek additional agreements with other carriers willing to forego international roaming revenue to gain market share.
Google also is expected to experiment with other innovations, possibly including the ability for a customer’s mobile device to register on a local Wi-Fi network or pick the best mobile operator signal (Sprint or T-Mobile US) available at the moment.
All past mobile virtual network operator and facilities-based mobile networks have used only a single network for access.
Google has suggested the mobile service would be a relatively small scale effort to show what might be done.
Some might suggest that was what initially was said about Google Fiber.
Google also has in the past invested in municipal Wi-Fi, airport Wi-Fi, commercial Wi-Fi at Starbucks locations and even invested in Clearwire.
Google also is testing unconventional says of supplying Internet access to billions of people living in the global South, using steerable balloons.
Google has said it would create a mobile virtual network operator business that would allow the fastest market entry, with nearly national coverage.
But such a move also would mean Google is bound by the network features and capabilities, as well as cost structure, of the wholesale agreement.
That is why Google seems to have created MVNO agreements with both Sprint and T-Mobile US, allowing devices to choose the best available local signal. That is a way of creating unique value in the context of a wholesale approach.
The deal with Hutchison Whampoa to support no extra charge global roaming is another example of the effort to innovate.
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