Google’s Project Fi + Free Muni Wi-Fi = Customer Savings + Carrier Disruption

23 Apr 2015

Google’s Project Fi + Free Muni Wi-Fi = Customer Savings + Carrier Disruption

Yesterday Google officially announced Project Fi, its much anticipated wireless service, which I’ve previously blogged and tweeted about during its pre-announcement rumor/leak phase. Now that more details, including pricing, are available directly from Google, an updated post seems in order, especially following recent posts about newly launched municipal Wi-Fi services in NYC and Boston (later on this post I’ll consider how these two developments may be related and synergistic). As expected, Google’s wireless service will route user traffic over a mix of Wi-Fi connections and, via MVNO arrangements with Sprint and T-Mobile, the two carriers’ cellular networks. This “three network” approach alone […]

15 Apr 2015

Community WiFi in the Smartphone Era: lessons & differences from the past

So far, this series of blog posts has focused on what private companies are doing in the unlicensed spectrum space—including startups, cable operators, Google and mobile carriers. In the next few posts I’ll consider what cities and local neighborhoods have done, are doing, and are planning to do with unlicensed spectrum. As a first step in considering current and future “community WiFi” projects, it’s worth taking a look back at an earlier wave of municipal WiFi networks. These date back roughly a decade, with one of the most ambitious early projects, in Philadelphia, being announced in April 2005, just a […]

07 Apr 2015

Signs of Google’s Global Ambition for Project Nova

2015-04-07
Mitchell Shapiro
Blog

In a post yesterday I discussed the disruptive potential of Google’s Project Nova. Having just discovered an article by Christopher Williams published last weekend in the UK’s Telegraph, I thought I should add an update on international aspects of Nova’s ambitions and potential impacts. Williams reports that, according to industry sources, “Google is in talks towards a deal with Hutchison Whampoa, the owner of the mobile operator Three.” He also notes that “Google and Three declined to comment.” The two giants are discussing a wholesale access agreement that would become an important part of Google’s planned attempt to shake-up the […]

06 Apr 2015

Unlicensed Spectrum: A Look at Google’s Project Nova

2015-04-06
Mitchell Shapiro
Blog

Though Google has not revealed much in the way of details, the Internet search giant is expected to launch a WiFi/MVNO wireless service sometime in the near future. Based on limited comments from company executives and reports in the Wall Street Journal (see here and here; subscription may be required) and elsewhere, it seems that the service will: rely on a combination of WiFi connectivity supplemented by cellular connections provided via MVNO agreements, most likely with both T-Mobile and Sprint; initially be available only to owners of the Nexus 6 smartphone, built by Lenova’s Motorola unit, which was acquired from […]

02 Apr 2015

Some Clarification on LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum

2015-04-02
Mitchell Shapiro
Blog

After writing two posts on potential carrier use of LTE technology in unlicensed spectrum (see here and here), I came across some information that helps clarify the functionality of and relationship between LTE Unlicensed (LTE-U) and License-Assisted Access (LAA). In those posts I referred to these as if they were different names for the same technology. A more accurate statement would be that: 1) LTE-U is an earlier iteration of “LTE in unlicensed spectrum” technology that conforms to the less stringent spectrum sharing requirements of countries like the U.S., South Korea, China and India; 2) LAA will provide a standardized […]

01 Apr 2015

“LTE Unlicensed” Deployments Planned for 2016

In the last post in this series I reviewed several different points of view regarding the pros and cons of cellular carriers using “LTE Unlicensed” (LTE-U) to expand their network capacity. In this post I’ll take a closer look at movement in this direction among U.S. carriers. [Note: The deployment of LTE in unlicensed bands is referred to by multiple names, including “LTE Advanced in unlicensed spectrum,” “LTE Unlicensed” (LTE-U) and, most recently “Licensed Assisted Access” LTE (LAA). In this post I’ll refer to it as LTE-U, though other names may appear in some excerpts included in the post.] The two […]

30 Mar 2015

A Range of Views on LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum

A key theme in this “unlicensed spectrum” series of blog posts has been the potential negative impacts on wireless carriers of lower-cost services built on WiFi connectivity, either in a “WiFi-first” or “WiFi-only” mode. In this two-part post the focus will shift to potential LTE deployments in unlicensed spectrum by licensed carriers, as they seek to increase network capacity while retaining tighter integration with their existing LTE-based networks than they can achieve with WiFi technology. The prospect of carriers deploying LTE in unlicensed bands marks a new phase in the history of unlicensed spectrum. In this new phase licensed carriers […]

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