14 DAY TRIAL // We’ve been hearing that Google had plans of becoming a wireless carrier in the US for a few months, and this week the search behemoth has finally made Project Fi official.
Unlike other established carriers in the US, Google hasn’t built its own infrastructure for this purpose, so instead, it will act like an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) using the networks of Sprint and T-Mobile.
This is a pretty unique setup which means that devices operating under the Project Fi banner will be able to support network bands from both T-Mobile and Sprint.
But this isn’t something any phone is capable of doing, so as it was previously anticipated, Google is limiting the availability of service only to the Nexus 6 smartphone for the time being.
Those of you who already own a Nexus 6 smartphone should be expecting to receive a SIM card from Google.
You can now grab a Nexus 6 via Project Fi
If you haven’t had the chance to pick up the handset but you still want it, you can now go ahead and order it through Project Fi with a 24-month installment plan ($27 / €25 per month for the 32GB model and $29 / €27 for the 64GB model). Naturally, you can also purchase it contract-free, if that’s what you want to do.
Project Fi allows users to seamlessly switch between Wi-Fi and mobile networks, so even if you’re in an area with no signal, you can still receive your phone calls and texts provided you have a proper Wi-Fi connection in your vicinity.
Google’s service isn’t fancy and has only one data plan (with no long-term contract requirement). Users pay $20 / €18 per month for the “The Fi Basics” pack, on top of which they add data allowance.
The package allows for unlimited domestic talk and text plus unlimited international texts. There’s a $10 / €9.34 per GB fee for cellular data in the US and abroad. Since Google has no way of actually predicting how much data you’ll end up using, users get credit for the full value of unused data.
In case of overages, you’ll be charged at the same $10 / €9.34 per GB rate, so if you use an extra 300MB, you’ll need to pay another $3 / €2.8 to cover the costs.
Wi-Fi tethering is built-in and the data costs the same across 120 different territories around the world, although speed limits will be limited to 256kbps. Naturally, in the States on T-Mobile’s and Sprint’s 4G networks, you’ll get much better options.
Users are allowed to change their minds and choose a different package from month to month, something which can be achieved via a dedicated mobile app you will have to install on your Nexus 6.
You will need an invite to join Project Fi
How do you join the ranks of Project Fi? Well, sadly, for the time being, you will need to get an invite. So if you want to make use of Project Fi, you have to request an invite from the official website and hope you’ll be granted access.
