Project Fi: all the news on Google’s plan to remake the wireless industry

Project Fi is already good for international travelers. The flat rate of $10 per gigabyte (the same price for using data at home) is better than what you typically get charged by a US carrier when you’re out of the country. But truly “pro” travelers with capable phones still often prefer to get a local SIM card for one simple reason: speed.

Roaming data is almost always slow. It’s typically capped at around 3G speeds, meaning you get none of the modern 4G LTE you’ve become accustomed to in your native land. 3G is a godsend for someone just trying to look up directions, read a Wikipedia article, or send a Facebook Message, but it’s not good for much else.

Google has added a third cellular network to Project Fi. US Cellular, the fifth-largest carrier in the country, will be available to Project Fi customers in the coming weeks, according to Google.

Project Fi was announced in April of last year, and it offers a few twists on the way wireless carriers traditionally work. For one, it employs multiple different cell networks — Project Fi phones switch between T-Mobile, Sprint, and Wi-Fi networks depending on which connection is strongest at any given moment.

Google has started sending invites out for its own MVNO phone service, Project Fi, but some people who’ve registered are going to have to wait a while longer. In an email sent out to users who’d indicated interest, Google warns that it may take until “mid-summer” for each request to be processed.

“We’re sending invites as quickly as we can, while ensuring a high-quality experience,” says the message. “Given the number of requests we’ve received, we currently estimate that it will take until mid-summer to get to everyone.” Google also says it will roll out a way to start tracking your invite’s status in the next few weeks.

Google’s made some strange decisions around how the Project Fi sign-up process works. The first wave of invites for Mountain View’s MVNO phone service are now going out, offering new details on Fi’s in and outs. If you’re a frequent Google Voice user interested in being part of Project Fi, it’s pretty critical that you pay attention. Entering Google’s latest experiment could mean the end of Google Voice as you’ve known it until now.

The most bizarre thing about Fi is Google’s policy for porting over Voice numbers. Project Fi will automatically recognize if an invited email address is tied to Google Voice, and from there you get two options: use your Google Voice number with Fi, or lose it entirely if you don’t. There’s no way of instructing the service to give you a new phone number and leave your existing Google Voice account untouched. Presumably this all relates to the technical side and back end of Fi, but it’s a pretty terrible decision. It will likely result in some people deleting their Fi invite to preserve Voice.

Google announced its own wireless network today. That sounds pretty ambitious and expensive. Plus you get what arguably the best, or least the most flexible, data plan offered by anyone, even trumping T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” approach. But building a mobile network is a massive expense. Is Google betting everything on this new project?

Well, no. Instead of spending billions to create its own network, Google is piggybacking on Sprint and T-Mobile. It’s called an MVNO — mobile virtual network operator. The model has an up and down history in the US. Around 2005 every tech blogger worth their salt thought they were the next big thing. A few years later we were strolling through the MVNO graveyard (RIP Disney Mobile, ESPN MVP, Helio, and many more).

You’ve now got the option of choosing Google as your wireless carrier instead of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile. Well, Nexus 6 owners do. With Project Fi, Google is aiming to make its presence felt in the mobile industry as a service provider in addition to being the leading force behind Android. Google’s focus with the new effort is simplicity and bills that aren’t confusing. It’s an approach not unlike the one John Legere’s T-Mobile has tried to lead with its Uncarrier effort. But how does Google’s plan compare to what you’d get from the biggest players in wireless right now? Let’s take a look.

For $20 a month, Google gives you unlimited domestic voice calling and texts, unlimited international texts, coverage in over 120 countries, and support for Wi-Fi tethering. It’s all centered around a hybrid take on wireless coverage that’s new to most consumers; Project Fi claims to seamlessly hand off between Wi-Fi and the mobile networks of T-Mobile and Sprint in the United States, though we can’t yet say how reliably it works. A coverage map is here. And then comes the data.

Google surprised virtually no one when it formally announced its new cellular service plan called Project Fi today. Project Fi is currently very limited — it’s an invite-only program and only works with Google’s own Nexus 6 smartphone — but it offers some very interesting things when it comes to service plan pricing and network coverage. Like Republic Wireless, Google Fi is heavily reliant on Wi-Fi networks for both calls and data. But it has a unique trick up its sleeve when you don’t have access to Wi-Fi: it will automatically switch between Sprint or T-Mobile’s networks based on whichever service is stronger where you are.

But as many people already know, Sprint and T-Mobile don’t quite have the same level of coverage as Verizon and AT&T, especially in rural areas. How exactly does Google Fi’s coverage stack up to AT&T and Verizon’s networks? We made a slider to find out.

Google is now a mobile carrier. Today the company has made official its plan to offer wireless service to owners of its Nexus 6 smartphone. It’s called Project Fi, and Google is launching an early invite program beginning today. “Similar to our Nexus hardware program, Project Fi enables us to work in close partnership with leading carriers, hardware makers, and all of you to push the boundaries of what’s possible,” the company wrote in a blog post.

The service is only available for the Nexus 6 and requires a special SIM card for Project FI — it will work with both existing Nexus 6 devices and new ones. Google says that right now the service is only available as an “early access program,” and during that program it won’t work on other phones.