Well, here we go. \u00a0In my absence, Google announced the launch of Project Fi, their experiment as a mobile virtual network operator. \u00a0It more or less dovetails with what the rumor mill predicted: only works on the Nexus 6 with a special SIM that allows multi-network operation and does everything (including phone and text) over Wi-Fi first but can then roam into T-Mobile or Sprint networks, whichever is stronger. Unlimited talk and text, service in 120 countries (with a slight fee for placing voice calls abroad), all for a flat $20 and then $10 per GB of data thereafter, prorated and refunded. \u00a0So if you pay $50 but then only use 2.7 GB of data, you\u2019ll get $3 back. \u00a0Or if you pay $40 and use 4.2 GB of data, you\u2019ll be charged $62. Simple.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a gauntlet thrown at the feet of AT&T and Verizon, mainly. The old PCS-only carriers don\u2019t generally have the rural buildout to compete outside the city, because they didn\u2019t inherit any of the old 800 Mhz frequencies the original A- and B-band cellular operators had (all of whom effectively were either AT&T or Verizon by 2006). \u00a0But with both Sprint and T-Mob to draw on, and wi-fi to backfill, Google might just be able to compete effectively – or at least put severe pricing pressure on the Big Two, which have in the last decade managed to pivot from selling tons of minutes and throwing in data as lagniappe to selling nothing but data and throwing in unlimited calls and texts as the sweetener.<\/p>\n
But…<\/p>\n
Seriously. Depending on where you live, Google has gotten way beyond the service sector only. \u00a0Time was, Google could be your email, your search, your social networking, your navigation, your media provider, and the OS of your phone, laptop and streaming stick. \u00a0Now they can be your ISP, your TV provider and your cellular phone company as well. \u00a0If you like and if the geography supports it, you can basically exist in a 100% Google ecosystem.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s problematic, as I\u2019ve described here and elsewhere. \u00a0It\u2019s the mirror image of Mountain View as Googleburg: when you\u2019re a company town, it generally works out better for the company than the town, and when Google\u2019s not Google anymore where will that leave you? And it\u2019s not like you can avoid them; Android has a market share bumping around 80% worldwide for smartphones and the majority of my personal email correspondents are on Gmail even if I\u2019m not so it\u2019s not like you can swear off the Beast of Mountain View and avoid being under their sway. And having established that \u201cdon\u2019t be evil\u201d is a crock of shit, where does that leave you?<\/p>\n
I spoke with someone writing an article about the transformation of some of these company towns in Silly Con Valley, and my line on Google was \u201cright now, it\u2019s kind of like Smaug, sitting there on a huge pile of gold, and here we are on the lake hoping against hope it just doesn\u2019t decide to wake up.\u201d \u00a0It staggers me that the same people who got sand in their bungholes at the horrifying revelations of Edward Snowden are still blithely indifferent to how much power they hand over to Google, completely voluntarily. \u00a0Of which more later.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, here we go. \u00a0In my absence, Google announced the launch of Project Fi, their experiment as a mobile virtual network operator. \u00a0It more or less dovetails with what the rumor mill predicted: only works on the Nexus 6 with a special SIM that allows multi-network operation and does everything (including phone and text) over … <\/p>\n