{"id":34634,"date":"2011-09-23T17:59:32","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T15:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=34634"},"modified":"2011-09-26T10:43:55","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T08:43:55","slug":"google-mobile-virtual-network-operator-a-hoax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/34634-google-mobile-virtual-network-operator-a-hoax.html","title":{"rendered":"Google mobile virtual network operator a hoax?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/span>: Images that surfaced on Spanish forum ElOtroLado show a Google SIM card and an Android device connected to the network Google_Es, but further reports suggest that it may be a hoax.
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cellular-news reported that Google may be testing networks in Spain<\/a> to launch its own mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) on one of three networks they are testing in the country.<\/p>\n

While there isn\u2019t much in the way of corroborating evidence or official comment from Google at this stage, if these images are real it would appear as though Google<\/a> staff have been issued Google branded SIMs that operate on a Google branded network.<\/p>\n

The images and news comes from Spanish forum ElOtroLado, where members reported that the SIMs use Movistar, Orange, and Vodafone<\/a>, even though the network name is \u201cGoogle_Es,\u201d which suggests an MVNO-type operation.<\/p>\n

This comes after the news that internal testing for Google Voice started in Europe<\/a>, and the ElOtroLado post asserts that these SIMs along with Nexus S smartphones constitute the Google Voice test in Spain.<\/p>\n

PaidContent has since reported that the images are probably not authentic<\/a>, citing a post on Xatak Andoid<\/a>. According to PaidContent they were directed to the post by Google Europe after asking about the authenticity of the photographs.<\/p>\n

Though not official comment from Google, it seems like an indirect denial of the rumour. Without official comment from Google it remains to be seen whether this is a hoax or a big move by the search giant.<\/p>\n

\"Google

Google SIM card<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Google

Google Spain MVNO?<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Images and information leaked on the web suggest that the search giant may be looking at launching a mobile virtual network operator<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":27599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[5074,167,5078,5076],"class_list":["post-34634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-elotrolado","tag-google","tag-google_es","tag-mvno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34644,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34634\/revisions\/34644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}