Free mobil cell phone service on the horizon, courtesy of Google and WiMax

Google has agreed to develop applications, and importantly, advertising services, for mobile devices running on the WiMax network. Clearwire says it will support phones using Google 'Android' OS. And Google will be Clearwire’s principal Web-search provider and preferred provider of other applications (think maps, e-mail, calendars).

Translation: Buy a cell phone running Android and receive cell phone access (wi-fi) with advertising courtesy of Google.




I wrote a few pieces (December 27th, 2007 and November 16th, 2007) about this last year and it seems that this MAY become a reality very shortly. I can't see what would stop Google from offering this 'free meat if you buy the freezer' approach. It would create a drastic upheaval in the cell phone market and disrupt dominant mobile providers business models the same way Google is providing free alternatives to other paid software and services now (Google docs/office, etc). I believe this will happen. Its simply a matter of time.