‘Google’ Partners With ‘US Cellular’ For ‘Project Fi,’ Service To Disrupt $340B Industry [Video]

When “Google” unveiled “Project Fi” back in April 2015, the world became fascinated with the idea of a multi-network cellular system for using data, calling, texting, and more. At the time, the search engine giant only had “T-Mobile” and “Sprint” in its corner. Since then, it has managed to rope in “US Cellular” in what appears to be a global takeover of the mobile carrier industry, disrupting the $340 billion market in the process. 

As The Verge notes, “US Cellular” is the fifth-largest mobile carrier in the U.S. and having it on “Google’s” team makes the “Project Fi” coverage a whole lot wider. Granted, its 2015 revenue was only at $4 billion according to Statista, which is a far cry from “AT&T’s” $146.8 billion. However, combined with “T-Mobile” and “Sprint,” “Google” still manages to achieve their goal by increasing the coverage of “Project Fi” thanks to the carrier.

The whole point to “Project Fi” is to provide users with the connection that they need whenever their own cellular service providers are out of range by allowing them to switch to another mobile carrier. For example, customers using “T-Mobile” can switch to data provided by “Sprint” in areas where the former has minimal to zero coverage using “Project Fi.” 

Basically, it acts like a mobile nexus wherein multiple carriers can stream their own connections through in order to provide data to users who are not necessarily subscribed to their own services. “Project Fi” is also capable of cycling through the different mobile carriers that it is connected to in order to provide users with the fastest connection available. 

“Google” announced the partnership via official blog post wherein they detail how many states can now receive coverage from “Project Fi,” how much they need to pay and what mobile units are required to use the service. For an overview, the service is now available in 23 states with 4G LTE coverage. Standard rate starts at $20/month and is only applicable to the Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, and the Nexus 5X.