Google confirms MVNO plans with existing partners

Google has confirmed that it is launching its own Mobile Virtual Network with its existing telecom, according to ome media reports. (See: Google to sell mobile phone plans directly to customers).

According to Pichai Google did not intend to be a "carrier at scale".

He said Google was aiming at breaking down the barriers of how connectivity worked, Pichai said.

Meanwhile, Google and Facebook are trying out everything they can, from selling smartphone data plans, to using solar-powered drone aircraft as airborne cell towers to partnering with telecom providers in the developing world to get people hooked on apps and to get more people online and clicking on ads, AP reported.

The two internet giants updated the Mobile World Congress on their future plans yesterday. And while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google vice president Sundar Pichai said they would look to collaborate more, and were taking very different approaches to getting the world connected.

Internet.org is Facebook's fledgling effort to create new users in countries with little or low internet use. Zuckerberg said yesterday that the social network had launched basic free services in six countries - Zambia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Colombia and most recently, India.

According to Zuckerberg the initial feedback from telecom partners in those countries had been positive, and called the app an ''onramp'' for paid services.

''Even if they have never used Internet in their life, they have basic services they can use - communication, health, education and jobs - and that basically serves as an onramp so people can learn why they would want to pay for data,'' Zuckerberg said. ''And we are finding that is growing paid subscribers and overall subscribers of the Internet.''

The app was customised for each country and telecom operator to attract new users while not hurting the telecoms' already existing base of customers by offering free versions of services users already paid for.

That was the reason why internet.org did not include the WhatsApp messaging service, bought by Facebook last year.