Google becomes mobile operator, as expected. The technology giant has finally formalized Fi Project, a revolutionary offering for the United States but not in France. Nevertheless, it combines the very best of both commercially and technically.
The French offer is comparable to Project Fi
Commercially, Fi Project consists of a basic package and a variable volume of Internet. Like most Americans packages, and at prices in line with the competition. Fi nonetheless stands with some subtleties. With the basic package for $ 20 a month, unlimited calls to national, but the messages are abroad. It is common in France, but not overseas
The Internet is also more or less to the card. The subscriber chooses a volume of between 1 and 10 GB for $ 10 per gigabyte, but is refunded at the end of the month for which he has not eaten, the dollar and thus almost 100MB. This is an adjustable package posteriori, which certainly prompts the user to consume more.
The first distinctive point of the package, still on the commercial side, is that it is not mobile ( almost, as we shall see) and without obligation. These packages are now the majority in France, but they are almost non-existent in the US.
The second is that the package is international. Abroad, calls are charged 20 cents per minute, but the messages are unlimited and especially the Internet is charged the same price in the US than in a hundred countries. The connection, however, is limited to 256 kb / s abroad. On this point Google is a little better than the French operators, which include homelessness (admittedly full rate) in Europe.
But Google is today implement the technologies of tomorrow
Up to this point, the French offer has little to envy Project Fi. Google still gets ahead technically, by implementing the latest technologies.
Project access is to begin a multi-network virtual operator. What Virgin Mobile, which allowed subscribers to change occasionally host network until its acquisition by Numericable, SFR. But Google goes further switches the user in real time, without interruption of service, not only between several 4G network operators (those of Sprint and T-Mobile, ultimately not those of AT & T and Verizon) but on more than one million Wi-Fi access points. The terminal will automatically select the most efficient, transparent to the user. Wi-Fi cellular switches already proposed by some US carriers, and she will soon be in France, but mainly at home.
Many operators prepare it, particularly in France with the advent of VoLTE but Google is finally the first in the world to implement virtualization phone number. The operator explained that “the number is in the cloud.” The subscribers can make and receive calls and messages from any Internet-connected device, through their account Google Hangouts, as they would with their landline number to Google Voice. In France such a service is envisaged that in the long term, Bouygues Telecom, when the VoLTE will be democratized and that the mobile is fully IP.
A semi-public beta
Registration for Google Project Fi are now open to US residents. But they require time for a Google Nexus 6, and above all they are by invitation, that is to say that only a small number of participants may actually take. Project Fi is experimental, like Google Fiber, and he will certainly grow if it encounters a success.
Anyway, contrary to what some expected, Fi does not embody the American dream we, French and European, although it is likely to accelerate the development of some interesting technologies.
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