Prone to distraction and sudden abandonment of its dalliances into the telecom marketplace, Google is actually pushing more chips into its MVNO-based mobile service.

This week, it announced a new name for the erstwhile Project Fi, now calling it “Google Fi.” The service will now work with many more devices to, with most iPhones and Androids compatible with the service.

This is, of course, unwelcome news to the top three U.S. cable companies. Comcast and Charter Communications have, in partnership, launched mobile services that combine the strengths of their respective public WiFi networks with a mobile virtual network operator agreement with Verizon. (Such an MVNO deal allows the cable companies to lease access to Verizon’s wireless LTE network.)

Altice USA, meanwhile, will launch a mobile service next year based on an MVNO agreement with Sprint.

As for Google Fi, it launched three years ago, offering customers MVNO access to either T-Mobile or Sprint. It later added regional wireless network operator U.S. Cellular to the choices.

The multiple options have been a selling point, with the undisclosed number of Google Fi customers able to choose the network that works best for them, depending on where they were located at any given time.

Users, however, were limited in terms of phone choices, with only models like the Pixel 3, the Moto G6 and the LG V35 including the chips needed to toggle between the multiple LTE networks.

With the new BYOD expansion, iPhone and Android-equipped Google Fi users will largely be confined to T-Mobile’s network, given their phones inability to toggle between MVNO providers.

Google’s sudden doubling down on its MVNO service somewhat surprised the tech press, which has seen the Silicon Valley giant in recent years abandon such telecom-centric efforts as wireline broadband play Google Fiber.

However, there are still plenty of reasons why Google Fi competes well with Xfinity Mobile and Spectrum Mobile.

Start with price. Users can pay $20 a month for one line that includes unlimited talk and text, and $10 a month for every 1 GB of data use, up to a maximum of $60 a month. For those who can confine their data use to WiFi, that’s a $30 a month wireless plan. And $80 a month will provide unlimited talk, text and data usage.

And there are other perks. For example, users who have a secondary device like a tablet can enable data usage for that device, with no extra line charge, simply by adding a SIM card. 

Expanding its attack on the traditional mobile services market, Google said it has exited the invitation-only stage for Project Fi, a service that starts at $20 per month that runs on WiFi and  falls back on Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s LTE networks when WiFi isn’t available.

Google unveiled Project Fi in April 2015, offering a service that bakes in basics such as voice, text, and WiFi tethering for $20 per month, plus $10 per gigabyte for cellular data in the U.S. and abroad.

“We launched Project Fi as an invitation-only Early Access program to make sure we could deliver the best quality of service to our first customers,” Simon Arscott, Project Fi’s project manager, announced Monday via this blog post. “Today, we’re excited to be exiting our invitation-only mode and opening up Project Fi so that people across the U.S. can now sign up for service without having to wait in-line for an invite.”

Google is broadening its mobile game as U.S. cable operators continue to mull their mobile strategies. Cablevision Systems, which is in the process of being acquired by Altice Group, offers a WiFi-only service called Freewheel; Comcast, meanwhile, is stil exploring how it might move forward with MVNO deals it has with Sprint and Verizon that could help to underpin a WiFi/cellular hybrid offering. 

Google has not announced how many people signed up for Project Fi during the ten-month invitation-only period, but to entice more to take the plunge, it’s offering the Android-powered Nexus 5X smartphone for $199 for the next month when customers buy and activate the device via Project Fi.

According to Google, more than 15% of Project Fi customers have used the service abroad, and that more than 50% of subs are connecting to public hotspots on a weekly basis using WiFi Assistant, a tool designed to automatically connect to the highest-quality connection  available.

During the first ten months of the service, Google also found that the average Project Fi customer uses 1.6 gigabytes of cellular data per month. 

Google Fiber appears to be flirting with a triple-play offering as it gears up to test a residential voice service called Google Fiber Phone.

Google Fiber has sent invitations for the trial to some of its subscribers, according to The Washington Post, which has also posted an image of the invitation, which Google had hoped to keep confidential.

According to that invitation, Google is offering access to the Google Fiber Phone trial via its Fiber Trusted Tester program, which gives customers “early access to confidential products and features.”

Sharing apparent similarities with the Google Voice product, Google Fiber Phone provides a “phone number that lives in the cloud. With Fiber Phone, you can use the right phone for your needs, whether it’s your mobile device on the go or your landline at home.”

The service being trialed also supports features such as voice mail transcribing, call screening, do-not-disturb settings, and the option for testers to receive a new number or transfer one from an existing landline or cell number.

Google Fiber currently sells a 1 Gbps standalone service for $70, the option to bundle in a pay TV service, as well as a free "basic" Internet service that is limited to 5 Mbps down by 1 Mbps up for customers who agree to pay a one-time construction fee. Adding a residential voice product would complete a triple-play bundle for  Google Fiber. Separately, Google has launched Project Fi, a mobile voice service that starts at $20 per month that runs on WiFi hot spots as well as Sprint’s and T-Mobile 4G LTE cellular networks.

Google declined to comment about the Google Fiber Phone trial. It’s not clear if Google Fiber is testing the voice service in Kansas City, its first market, or if it has extended it to customers in Provo, Utah; and Austin, Texas. Google Fiber also has buildouts underway in Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Nashville, Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte. It’s also exploring deployments in several markets, including Chicago; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

In October 2015, Bernstein Research  estimatedthat Google Fiber’s network passed about 427,000 homes and 96,000 business locations, primarily in Kansas City and Provo, Utah, and that it had signed up as many as 120,000 paid subs.

FreedomPop, a startup that specializes in “free” mobile voice and data services to the cost-conscious, said it has declined “multiple M&A offers” and will instead look to accelerate its growth following a $30 million “B” round.

With the new round factored in, FreedomPop has raised about $52 million. The B round was led by Partech Ventures, along with participating from DCM Capital and Mangrove Capital. A new “strategic investor” is also being added to the round and will be announced later, the company said. Partech Ventures general partner Mark Menell will be joining the FreedomPop board.

Stephen Stokols, CEO of FreedomPop, said the company avoided the temptation to sell because it believes FreedomPop’s growth trajectory will position it to be available at higher valuations down the road, and that FreedomPop wanted to control its own destiny.

FreedomPop’s valuation is “nowhere near where we think it’s going to be in a year or two years’ time,” he said. “There was a lot of stuff that we were just on the cusp of doing. It felt premature to sell at this point.”

FreedomPop said it turned down “multiple” M&A offers. Stokols wouldn’t identify them by name, but said the group included a mix of U.S. carriers, including MSOs, Internet companies and VoIP service providers that were looking to pivot into the mobile arena.

FreedomPop said it will now look to expand its free mobile service (its devices provide a set amount of its free text and voice service before tiered pricing plans apply) to more countries and boost distribution through new “offline” retail partnerships (the bulk of its sales are done direct via the Internet and through affiliate electronic retail partners such as GroupOn).  The company intends to line up some offline retail tests in time for the 2015 holiday season with “at least one, if not two, big name retailers,” Stokols said.

FreedomPop, which launched its free phone service about 18 months ago, claims that it is nearing 1 million subs. It’s in the process of rolling out in the U.K. this summer and expects to expand further into Europe later this year.

FreedomPop is looking to expand as it continues to compete with traditional mobile carriers as well as with Project Fi, a new service from Google that will start at $20 per month and will run on pre-vetted WiFi hot spots and Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s U.S. 4G LTE cellular networks. Cablevision Systems, meanwhile, has launched a WiFi-only service called Freewheel.

AT&T U-verse added subs in the TV and broadband categories in the first quarter of 2015, but at a slower rate than the year-ago, numbers that were partially affected by the sale of AT&T’s Connecticut wireline operations to Frontier Communications, which wrapped in October 2014.

AT&T said it added 440,000 U-verse Internet customers in Q1, extending that total to 12.6 million, but below the 634,000 subs it added in the category a year earlier.

On the video side, AT&T tacked on 50,000 U-verse TV subs in Q1, versus 201,000 adds in the year-ago quarter.

U-verse TV penetration at the end of Q1 was 22%, while U-verse broadband penetration was 21%.

AT&T pulled in U-verse residential revenues of $5.7 billion in Q1, noting that U-verse (high speed Internet, TV and voice over IP) now represents 69% of the company’s wireline consumer revenues, up from 59 percent in the year-ago period.

AT&T also noted that it expects to gain final approval of its proposed DirecTV merger in the second quarter of 2015.

“We expect the DirecTV transaction will close this quarter,” John Stephens, AT&T’s CFO and SVP, said on Wednesday’s earnings call. He expressed confidence that the combo of AT&T and DirecTV will exceed their original $1.6 billion in expected cost synergies, now seeing them exceed a $2.5 billion run rate by year three.

Stephens attributed that improved view in part to efficiency opportunities such as combining broadband and video installs on one truck roll, getting customers on a single bill and the utilization of a unified customer care operation, getting better pricing on set-tops and other equipment, and combined advertising.

Those cost-savings, he said. “will build starting in 2015, but build really in 2016, and…move toward significant amounts in 2017.”

Stephens appeared unworried about competition posed by Google’s new Project Fi, which will use WiFi and Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s 4G networks to deliver services initially to one device, the Motorola Nexus 6, and start at $20 per month.

“It’s got a very limited number of devices,” Stephens said. “That's not generally the way we like to present options to customers. We like to provide a lot…My understanding also is that there's going to be very limited distribution and customer care.” 

Google announced Wednesday that it will try to shake up the U.S. mobile industry with Project Fi, a service that starts at $20 per month and will run on pre-vetted WiFi hot spots as well as Sprint’s and T-Mobile US’s 4G LTE cellular networks. 

Taking aim at mobile services encumbered with restrictive or complicated data plans, Google said the $20 per month fee will cover basics such as talk, text, WiFi tethering and international coverage in more than 120 countries, plus a flat $10 per gigabyte for cellular data in the U.S. and abroad, or 2GB for $20, 3GB for $30 per month, and so on. Customers will also get money back each month for data they don't use. 

“Since it's hard to predict your data usage, you'll get credit for the full value of your unused data,” Nick Fox, VP of communications products at Google, explained in this blog post about the new service. “Let's say you go with 3GB for $30 and only use 1.4GB one month. You'll get $16 back, so you only pay for what you use.”

In the vein of so-called “WiFi first” strategies that are being pursued by some cable operators as well as providers such as Scratch Wireless and Republic Wireless (Cablevision Systems has launched a WiFi-only service called Freewheel), Google said Project Fi will securely auto-connect customers to open WiFi hotspots (Google said it has verified more than 1 million of them "as fast and reliable") or a partner's cellular network. Taking it a step further, Project Fi aims to connect customers to the fastest available network at a given location, whether that’s via WiFi or the Sprint or T-Mobile 4G network.

Google currently is limiting Project Fi to an invitation-only Early Access Program, and will initially offer the service on the Nexus 6, a Motorola-made device that is the first to support the service’s new WiFi/cellular handoff capabilities.