Is Fi the Invisible Hand that pushes Verizon & AT&T off their pedestal?

Last week Google unveiled to the public a first look at their newest venture, Google Fi, a mobile carrier service that is aimed to tackle the largest mobile carrier providers. The announcement was released following the recent “Mobilegeddon” update in Google’s search algorithm and has struck a cord with their consumers and competitors alike.

The only catch is that unless you are only using it for the data and Google phone services, you must be on either Sprint or T-Mobile to get the complete mobile plan. Additionally, the only phone that can currently support the Google Fi is Motorola’s beastly Google Nexus 6 which starts at a cool $649.

The service will utilize existing Google fiber optic networks, Wi-Fi hotspots, and switch to their partnered carrier networks (Sprint and T-Mobile) whenever Wi-Fi is unavailable.

The project holds an extremely likely potential to disrupt the marketplace for the superpowers AT&T and Verizon, as well as resurrect the once slowly diminishing cellular brands Sprint and T-Mobile.

Let’s take a look the Pro’s & Con’s:

5 Pro’s of Google Fi —

Roll-over data. Based on what GB plan you choose, your unused data will be credited as $ back to your account that you can save for future months. So you aren’t paying extra for ‘air time’. Pay as You Go. Pay your bill on a monthly basis, but you want to go off the grid for a few months? Just don’t pay the next month and just pick up where you left off later. Both Mobile Carriers will Buy-Out your Contact. Just this year Sprint announced it would pay up to $350 per line to your cell phone provider, and T-Mobile offered $650 to help take the headache out of making the switch. Easy to Manage Costs. At $20/monthly service cost + $10 per GB, you can easily select and change which plan works best for you. “Over 1 Million Free Open Hotspots.” What these hotspots end up being exactly is yet to be known other than utilizing available public hotspots. Google is claiming they have a quality database of these public hotspots and promises security when connecting to WiFi through automatic VPN (Virtual Private Network) connections.

5 Con’s of Google Fi —

Takes Effort to Make the Switch. Sounds silly, but a lot of consumers will need to take time our of their day to make a the change of cell providers and it’s up to the early adopters to rally their vote. Only Works with 1 Phone. Motorola’s contender to the iPhone 6s, the Google Nexus 6. Exclusive Technology. To be capable for Google Fi; all future phones will need to have a special Sim card. Unless Google can solve this implementation issue effectively, this could massively limit the scale of adoption in the mobile market. Hidden Additional Costs. The Nexus 6, when activated with Google alone is $649. If you choose to go with either T-Mobile or Sprint with a 2-year contract you can get the phone at just for $25/month over a 24-month pay period. Not to mention additional costs that come with extra features from those carriers, should you choose. Will it Work? Aside from the fact that Google isn’t the first company to produce a cloud-based communication platform. They will be the first ones to successful implement this hybrid model of switching data usage with a fluid browsing method from Wi-Fi to mobile.

It’s true that Apple and Samsung both have their cloud storage platform that utilizes for their personal communications like iMessage and FaceTime, as well as Samsung’s SideSync. However, it will be interesting to see how smooth their WiFi to carrier model implements comparatively.

In 2014, Cisco reported a little over 46% of all mobile data traffic was through Wi-Fi. With the current rate of Wi-Fi rollouts that number could easily reach 90%. If 90% of traffic went over Wi-Fi instead of through cellular services, at $10 per GB, it would save consumers around $700 billion per year. Leaving a potentially massive gaping hole in the annual revenue for Verizon and AT&T.

If there’s any company who is capable to test the grounds of these goliaths, it is Google.