BARCELONA -- Following nearly a year of rumors, Google confirmed on Monday that it plans to offer talk and data plans to customers.
Sundar Pichai, senior VP at Google, said on stage at Mobile World Congress during a presentation that the company is working on a wireless service on a "small scale."
Pichai said Google will become a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means it could buy "wholesale access" from Sprint and T-Mobile networks and then sell cellular plans to its own customers.
Google will be treating the experiment as an experience, similar to how it approached the first Nexus phone. After that program succeeded, the company decided to invest more time and resources into growing the brand.
The move would be a departure from Google's core business and signal an even greater emphasis on mobile.
Google is also getting closer to officially launching its solar-powered drone program Project Titan and will send its first fleet into the sky sometime this year.
Pichai outlined how the company aims to bring web connectivity to some of the 4 billion people currently without Internet access. Later this year, it will launch its first fleet of solar-powered drones into the sky as a part of its Project Titan program, he said.
It will also work alongside Project Loon, which involves sending balloons into the sky to serve as floating cell towers to distribute Internet access across a large area.