(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/Prykhodov)
First announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google is set to launch its phone service tomorrow. The key question is whether Google can offer a proposition attractive enough to persuade customers to leave their current national mobile providers.
Research from Amdocs suggests this could be a challenge. In their Customer Experience Spotlight 2015 survey, respondents expressed a preference for traditional service providers over “over-the-top” (OTT) disruptors like Google’s new MVNO offering.
Highlights from the Amdocs report include:
- 80% of respondents said they would not consider switching to OTT disruptors that provide mobile connectivity
- Main concerns included privacy and security, lack of trust, and potential network quality issues
- There were notable regional differences: respondents in APAC and emerging markets were more open to considering OTT disruptors, while consumers in mature markets in Europe and North America tended to remain loyal to established carriers
Google’s service will rely on Sprint and T-Mobile networks, switching between them based on which delivers the strongest signal at a given time. Initially the service will be limited to Nexus 6 owners. The most notable aspect of Google’s approach is its pricing model.
Rather than charging customers for fixed bundles, Google plans to bill only for the amount of data used each month. Calls and texts can be routed over Wi‑Fi to reduce costs further. That usage-based model could ruffle feathers in the industry and will likely draw attention from other operators.
In the U.S., T‑Mobile offers a somewhat similar concept with its Data Stash program, which lets customers roll unused data into the next month for up to a year so they don’t lose their allowance. AT&T provides a rollover option as well, but only for a single month.
Google aims to disrupt through specific innovations. Sundar Pichai, Senior Vice President at Google, said at MWC: “Our goal is to drive a set of innovations which we think the ecosystem should adopt, and hopefully will get traction if our carrier partners think they’re good enough.”
Google has not revealed the full scope of the rollout, but it’s likely to be gradual, resembling the phased expansion of Google Fiber. For now, national carriers may have little immediate cause for alarm—Amdocs’ findings suggest many consumers may prefer established providers—but they will still be watching closely.
Do you think Google’s mobile network will be disruptive? Let us know in the comments.