Android: First Step in Google's Plan to Change Mobile World

A 2007 patent filing by Google (published just yesterday) sheds light on how Google aims to take over the wireless world - shaking from grounds up the wireless industry business model. It appears the Android OS was just a small part of Google's plan for a wireless revolution.

It would have been too simple if Google launched the G1 phone, powered by its own Android mobile OS, existed just as an iPhone competitor. Android as an operating system is just the launching pad for what the search giant has planned for the wireless industry.

Google's March 2007 "Flexible Communication Systems and Methods" patent, published for the first time yesterday, could eliminate the need of long-term contracts with wireless carriers, putting the users in control of each call of data transfer they make.

A Truly Open Handset

The patent describes how users will be able to automatically poll - in real-time before they make a wireless call - nearby wireless services and see what is the best price for a voice or data connection on their phone. Then they can make a decision based on various factors, such as price, reliability, bandwidth or coverage, and select the carrier they want to initiate the call with.

Users can automatically select the cheapest rate for each individual call you make, depending on where you are located. Also, users can be freed from the burden of a contract (like the two year one G1 comes with from T-Mobile) and decide which factors they consider when making a call, depending on their needs at that moment.

There are many other technicalities behind this patent. The initial connection to find out the best prices for the calls would have to be done via WiMax (Google invested $500 million in Sprint's WiMaX network infrastructure, Wi-Fi or via a user selected default cellphone carrier.

The software behind this patent will have to be embedded into Android OS, which would make it more difficult for Google to team up with various carriers around the world to subsidize its phones. And all that, only if the wireless carriers decide they want to play ball with Google and that they can have profits at least as large as they do with the current business model they are running.

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