Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has announced plans to extend Project Fi’s Wi-Fi assistant to all Nexus devices. This means that Nexus phone owners will have the option to connect automatically to more than 1 million free Wi-Fi hotspots.
The company made the announcement on the Google Nexus page. The Project Fi feature will be available to all Nexus owners globally. However, only Nexus owners in the UK, Mexico, Canada, the US and Nordic countries will get access to the Wi-Fi networks. Alphabet has provided guidelines on Google’s artificial page so that users can learn how to automatically connect to free verified networks on their nexus handsets. Google’s Project Fi promises secure Wi-Fi hotspots that offer strong connections.
The Wi-Fi assistant is usually turned off by default but users who want to take advantage of the offer can turn it on through their device settings. The Wi-Fi assistant settings are located within the networking settings. Nexus users can check whether their handsets are connected by checking whether there is a VPN key icon in the notification bar. Using VPN is important because it prevents an individual’s data from being seen by other users in the same open network. Alphabet may monitor the system data once in a while to scan for abuse and improve the program.
Project Fi is one of the tools that mobile handset users can take advantage of to reduce their reliance on cellular network coverage as well as bringing down their data charges. Though this might be good news for Nexus owners, it is probably not the case for mobile service providers because they stand to make less money since users will not purchase as much data as they otherwise would. The move pushes Alphabet further into wireless services thus making it a direct threat to carriers that have been dealing with Android handsets. Alphabet launched Project Fi in 2015 and users were charged $20 per month.
