Technology News

Today’s generation of smartphone usage means that we can do a lot of things wirelessly, be it sending messages or receiving them, watching our favorite Netflix shows online or listening to music, taking a photo or selfie and sharing it with our family, all this and more happens wirelessly. But what about charging our phones? We have still not been able to move away from connecting our phones to a power outlet through a wire. Soon every gadget can do wireless charging .

Scientists are now changing all that with their latest discovery in wireless charging. Researchers have now come up with a way in which a phone charged through wireless charging with a laser beam all by taking into account various safety measures. By placing your phone anywhere in a room, your phone will be able to get charged wirelessly without the need of any cords or wires.

How can you do wireless charging to your phone through a laser?

Researchers have come up with a way to wireless charging of your phone sitting across a room with a narrow beam of laser. You simply place your phone on a table top or any other surface in a room and your phone will begin to charge wirelessly.

This discovery may be able to charge your phone as fast as a normal USB cable would and charging too starts automatically.

How did researchers come to wireless charging?

Researchers placed a thin power cell on the back of the phone to charge the phone through it. The laser beam would connect to the power cell on the smartphone and begin to wireless charging  the phone.

This narrow charging beam comes from a laser emitter that emits the laser in near infrared spectrum. The narrow beam of laser can deliver a steady 2W of power to a 15 square inch of a particular area at a distance of upto 4.3 meters. The laser emitter can even be made to expand the area of coverage potentially allowing charging a phone form any wider surface area.

Researchers have also come up with a way by which the laser will begin to charge the phone. They configured the phone to emit high-frequency chirps as a signal for the laser beam to begin charging the phone. This sound is inaudible to the human ears but will be picked up by the laser emitter.

Safety measures for wireless charging via laser:

Researchers have taken extreme care while developing this method of charging phones wirelessly. They have placed aluminum strips around the power cell attached to the phone to dissipate any excess heat given off by the beam. A thermo electric generator is also placed near the power cell to harvest the excess heat which also aids in charging the phone.

Researchers have also placed “guard beams” located on the laser emitter that stop the charging laser when the guard laser path to the phone is obstructed. Researchers have also 3D printed retroreflectors on the power cell to reflect the lower powered guard laser beams from the laser emitter. When a person walks through the guard laser, a shutter automatically comes over the charging laser effectively blocking any charge to the phone. This all happens very fast taking into account normal human movements.

5G isn’t a new thing for Mobile World Congress but this year the expectation surrounding it has risen exponentially. A number of cellular operators across the world have started taking the initial steps towards upgrading the mobile infrastructure in order to make way for the blazing fast 5G roll out.

It is being also stated that the 5G will be seen powering the next generating of the Smartphones and in the wake of the imminent 5G launch Smartphones makers are taking necessary steps to make their devices 5G ready. Currently smartphone makers have started showcasing the 5G capable mobile devices at the MWC in Barcelona.

5G isn’t just going to power the Smartphones but it will also be seen interacting with the PC devices. Intel is taking care of this segment by working on such two-in-one devices which will be seen at the MWC.

Intel is extremely tight lipped about the specifications and features of such devices but it is highly expected that it will be running on the Windows OS might be developed by Dell, Lenovo and HP. Apart from Intel, Microsoft is also preparing launch 5G capable devices by the end of 2019.

5G isn’t far away rather it coming very fast

The fifth generation of cellular technology has been in its inception for last couple of years wherein a number of telecom providers were seen actively putting it on trial across the globe. 5G as with every iteration of technology promises to give a boost to the speed, coverage as well as the responsiveness of the wireless networks.

When we talk about 5G then it is really fast which can be described as 10 to 100 times speedier than what we are using now. It will certainly be way faster than the fastest speed offered by fiber optic cables. In other words 5 G will offer one of a kind speedier and remarkable upgrade over the existing cellular connections.

Intel set to recoup its position

When 4G explosion occurred just a few years Intel missed the chance to play a vital role in the Smartphone market. Intel has remained a pioneer in the PC chip market but when it came to Smartphone segment it simply remained an underdog with Snapdragon and Mediatek taking the major share of the market. In 2017 alone Intel has made as much $62 billion from its chip making  business and it is all geared up to remain in contention for the 5 G device market.

The road towards making a comeback in the Smartphone market as a credible and appropriate choice for the chipset isn’t easy for Intel. As a number of industry experts believe that its earlier will certainly keep Smartphone manufacturers aloof from utilizing it on their devices.

But it is worth noting that Intel has spent a large amount of money and the research and development of the next generation of chips which has the potential to deliver on the 5G technology without any issues or shortcomings.

RCS to Enhance Standard Messaging

RCS (Rich Communication Services) will come with enhanced features that will take the standard messaging to the next level. Google in partnership with 43 carriers and device manufacturers is trying to better the usual messaging experience with RCS for every Android user.

What is RCS?

RCS which stands for Rich Communication Services is being launched by Google to give Android users a better SMS texting than what one has experienced. The current default SMS app on Android phones is sending Messages. Google will be implementing Rich Communication Services to this SMS app to give its users a better experience.

It will give a rich content with images, emoji inside the standard SMS app on the phone. In addition to text messages, one can do much more. Rich Communication Services provides file sharing, group messaging, images, stickers and gaming, voice and video calls inside the standard SMS app. Google’s RCS aims to provide a better and more interactive new standard SMS app.

At the Mobile World Congress, Google plans to work with their partners to bring Rich Communication Services to businesses in various regions. They will showcase how the business industry can be more interactive using RCS and change the way they interact with mobile customers. This will help the businesses to not only send text messages but also images of their products which can help the customers to buy something without leaving the messaging app. All the customers who get SMS messages from a business will automatically get this upgraded version of using RCS in Android Messages.

In order to provide the RCS experience to Android users all around the world, Google has been working in collaboration with most of the carriers and device makers.

In the previous year, carriers across Europe, North America and Latin America committed to launch RCS messaging, powered by Jibe RCS cloud from Google. Google had created an Early Access Program to enable businesses to take part in the Rich Communication Services business messaging. Companies dealing with food, travel, retail and delivery services in the U.S. and Mexico are having an interactive experience with their customers using Rich Communication Services.

On the flip side, if your interaction with Rich Communication Services is mostly business messages, then you can get many messages that are annoying, ads or even spam.

There is also a problem that if your phone and carrier support Rich Communication Services and the recipient of the message does not have Rich Communication Services, then you will not be able to use the RCS messaging app.

There are also a number of other messaging apps like Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat being used to send messages.

According to a Google update, Google makes it clear that it will not allow businesses to spam users with RCS. In the Early Access Program, they will review every campaign and make sure the messages do not contain any spam. The businesses that send the

Rich Communication Services messages are basically the ones that people choose to receive and they can opt out at any point in time.

Google plans to adopt policies that will prevent spams and have automated and manual mechanisms to provide security to their users.

Finally SpaceX get US regulator nod for its ambitious satellite internet plan

SpaceX was in news for its successful launch earlier this month when it placed its Roadster car right into the space in a rare display of the firm prowess. SpaceX seems to be on the roll as it has just received the endorsement from the US communication regulator which will allow it bring together a massive network of satellite to offer internet coverage globally like never before. It would be the first when a firm is specifically looking at deploying satellite with the sole purpose of building a strong broadband network for its consumers.

Getting the FCC approval isn’t an easy task

SpaceX got approval from the Federal Communication Commission or FCC and it can now provide the broadband services within the United States and even worldwide using satellites. FCC chairman has stated that this move on the part of the SpaceX will allow millions of Americans to access internet services in the rural and remote location where bringing fiber optic cable and cell towers isn’t possible.

SpaceX has shared its plan of using satellites to provide broadband coverage to the users but it wasn’t green lit by the FCC in the past. SpaceX didn’t get snubbed by it rather went ahead and planned to launch a pair of experimental satellites. This got approved by FCC and very soon these satellites will be launching from California in the upcoming days. Apart from the experimental satellites this rocket will also carry the PAZ satellite for Spain as well as other multiple smaller secondary payloads.

SpaceX:  Putting a car in the space

Just a week ago SpaceX made news for building and launching the world’s most powerful rocket ever named Falcon Heavy. It was a 23 story talk jumbo rocket which carried Tesla’s very flagship vehicle named Roadster which happens to be world’s faster electric car. FCC chairman Pai was quite enthusiastic about the SpaceX endeavor and he stated that this approval would come as the first when an American company is given a chance to provide broadband coverage to the citizens by utilizing new age low Earth orbit satellite technology.

The vision of SpaceX and the competition

Elon Musk has talked about launching a satellite internet based business way back in 2015 and he even stated that the money generated from this venture would help in funding a future city on Mars. He is more in creating a unique global communications system which can be easily interpreted as rebuilding the internet right into the space. Certainly such a system will be much faster and reliable than the traditional internet services being utilized on the land.

SpaceX isn’t the only with approval to deliver broadband services using satellites. Now it has a stiff competition to deal with as FCC has approved requests made by a number of firms namely Telesat, Space Norway and OneWeb. All of these firms will be competing against each offer better internet services at better prices. This would certainly be a boon for the people living in the remote and rural areas of the country where network reception and communication capabilities are quite limited.

How is SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in the world, and why is launching from Cape Canaveral so important? 

It took off from the same platform in Florida that took the men to the Moon. And it marked a new chapter on the road to a manned mission to Mars.

The gigantic rocket Falcon Heavy, of the private company SpaceX, left this Tuesday at 20:45 GMT from NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.  And he did it by taking a Tesla car, the first car to be launched into space.  The Falcon Heavy took off from the LC-39A platform of the Kennedy Center, the same one from which the Apollo missions departed.

The launch of the rocket is one of the most anticipated events since the missions that brought man to the Moon.  A crowd flocked to Cape Canaveral to witness the takeoff.  Both SpaceX and Tesla are led by technology billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk, who hopes to use rockets like Falcon Heavy in future missions to Mars.

This spacecraft was built mainly from three Falcon 9 rockets, also from Space X, to power the capsule in which the Tesla was installed.  As with its launches, SpaceX hoped to recover the three accelerating rockets.  Less than three minutes after takeoff, two of these returned to the Florida coast, just south of the Kennedy Space Center. Their landing legs made contact with the ground at almost the same time.

The third accelerator was to return to an unmanned ship in the Atlantic Ocean, several hundred miles from Florida.  But it did not have enough fuel to decelerate during the descent and was destroyed when it hit the water at about 500 kilometers per hour.

Musk believes that the recovery and reuse of the rockets are what will change the game rules of the space industry.

“The game will be over for all the other heavy-load rockets,” he told reporters.  “It will be like trying to sell an airplane in a market in which one airline has a reusable airplane and all the others have single-use planes, which once they reach their destination, randomly crash somewhere”, he pointed.

Auto in orbit 

After the return of the accelerating rockets, the upper capsule of the Falcon Heavy, with the Tesla, began its trajectory towards the orbit of Mars.  For it to be routed to its destination, the engine of the upper stage had to ignite three times.

This is the ship with which Space X wants us to travel to Mars to establish a human colony. Musk warned before the flight that this was one of the phases that worried him most, because of the possibility that it did not work correctly.

The upper stage of the Falcon had to traverse a concentrated region of radiation on Earth, known as “Van Allen belts,” and this could interfere with electronic systems.  The rocket, 70 meters high, you can place in orbit a load of up to 64 tons, the equivalent of putting in space five double-decker buses. Its capacity is only surpassed by the Saturn V aircraft, which operated in the Apollo missions in the decade of the 60s and 70s.

The Falcon Heavy rocket has twice the capacity of the rest of those used today.  But the triple structure required modifications in the design and a strengthening of the main propeller.

The 27 Merlin engines at the base of the rocket can generate a power of 23,000 kilo-newtons, more than double the most powerful currently in use, the Delta IV Heavy, operated by the United Launch Alliance, one of the main competitors of SpaceX.

Musk said the challenges of developing the rocket made the chances of the launch successful only 50-50.  “I had the image of a giant explosion on the platform, a wheel bouncing on the road, but fortunately, it did not happen,” the Space X CEO told reporters after the event.  With an undoubted advertising calculation, the Falcon Heavy took as test load a red Tesla car in which a dummy with a space suit was placed at the wheel.

The Tesla radio played a David Bowie Space Oddity song as the vehicle left Earth.  If everything goes according to plan, the Tesla will be dispatched in an elliptical orbit around the Sun that will serve to reach Mars.

“The car will reach an orbit that is 400 million km from Earth and will travel to its destination at a speed of 11 km per second,” Musk told reporters.  “And we estimate that the Tesla will continue in that orbit for hundreds of millions of years.”

 Satellites and telescopes

It is unlikely that the Falcon Heavy arrives to transport its maximum load, due to the large amounts of fuel that would be necessary.

THE FALCON HEAVY    

• Could place in orbit much larger satellites for military or intelligence use
• Could launch a large number of smaller satellites simultaneously, such as the “constellation of thousands of satellites” proposed by Elon Musk to provide broadband to the entire planet
• It will allow sending large robots to the surface of Mars, or visiting distant planets of the Solar System such as Jupiter and Saturn and their moons
• It will also be able to place large telescopes in orbit as Hubble’s successor, the James Webb telescope, which due to current restrictions will be folded like an origami sheet for its launch in 2019
• The new Falcon Heavy rocket has already been hired to launch large geostationary satellites.

The main clients of Falcon Heavy “will possibly be the government and the Department of Defense of the United States, SpaceX is already a recognized supplier of the Department of Defense for classified and unclassified missions,” Rachel Villain, of the space consultancy Euroconsult, told.

The Falcon Heavy presents a challenge to the US government. NASA is developing its own super-rocket called Space Launch System or SLS. It is estimated that each flight of the SLS will cost about US $ 1,000 million.  According to Musk, the cost of each Falcon Heavy  flight is about US $ 90 million and some critics are already questioning how Congress can justify SLS spending when there is a much cheaper alternative.

Musk is not the only entrepreneur who wants to compete with NASA.  Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is developing a rocket called New Glenn that will be able to place in orbit loads of up to 45 tons. And he said he plans an even more powerful version called New Armstrong.  For SpaceX the launch of Falcon Heavy is part of a much more extensive program to send a crew to Mars in the future.  Musk is already developing a future rocket called BFR, which will have no less than 31 engines.

Will Google be making an entry into the gaming business with Yeti?

According to a report, Google is said to be developing a game streaming service, called Yeti. Google will be stepping into the video game business, where the users can play games without actually downloading them. It could work with its Chromecast device or they could be developing a console for streaming the games. Cloud Servers will be used to broadcast the games. Google has been in discussions with other game developers regarding Yeti.

Features of the Game Streaming Service – Yeti

Google is working on a subscription based game streaming service, codenamed Yeti. According to the Information website, this service could work either on Chromecast or a Google made console which is being developed for this purpose. In a way, this could enhance the success of its Chromecast platform to play games without downloading them.

This game streaming service dubbed Yeti, allows people to play games without downloading them. They can play the games while they are being streamed and there is no need of downloads or disks. This service Yeti will put Google as the front runner in the video gaming business.

This service, codenamed Yeti will be in line with the streaming services of PlayStation Now. The users will have to pay a subscription fee to access the games. The games will be broadcasted to the users via cloud servers and streamed over the internet.

Google is in talks with game developers, if games can be developed especially for Yeti. It is left to be seen whether they will do that or only make the existing streamed games available.

What is Game Streaming?

Game streaming does away with purchasing expensive video game hardware, since game processing is done in the cloud. Game streaming can be used for those with fast internet connections. The game is available on the remote server and the video is streamed to the user. Controller inputs are sent back to control the game. The communication lag is minimized if it is done properly. There is also the monthly bandwidth caps put forth by the ISPs. Local gaming can be availed in case the monthly allotment is used up.

Google will not be the first to offer game streaming. NVIDIA has GeForce Now, but it needs a Shield Android TV which is $200. The Chromecast on the other hand is only $35. According to reports, there is also work being done to develop a console where games can be streamed on Yeti. It is not clear which games Google will stream on Yeti, but the gaming enthusiasts will be hoping that the high end games will be in the offering.

It is left to be seen if Google can provide a quality gaming experience powered by Cloud to its users. Google hired Phil Harrison of Playstation and Xbox on board its project of game streaming service, Yeti. This indicates that Google is taking the games industry very seriously.

The game streaming service, codenamed Yeti will be a big move in the gaming world. If Google gets it right, this will be a big boost for them in the gaming business.

With many people buying things online, delivery becomes a very lucrative business. Picking stuff up directly from the warehouse and delivering it straight to one’s door step is the order of the day. Engineers have found a new way to deliver products to one’s home that to without the need for the vehicle to be manned. This new toaster shaped vehicle is termed as Nuro.

Other that ferrying people around, this steeringless vehicle is meant to move goods up to down from warehouse to home. Engineered by two engineers from Google, who worked on autonomous cars at the company, nuro is a self- driving car that was recently unveiled by the duo.

What is Nuro?

Nuro is a toaster shaped delivery vehicle. The autonomous vehicle is meant to ferry not people but the goods you order online form the warehouse to your doorstep. Nuro also comes with a built in remote that allows you to control the vehicle remotely too.

The team behind Nuro, aim at making human life easier through the use of robots in performing daily activities. Nuro is their start at improving that human life by using robots.

Nuro is just the Start…:

Besides Nuro, there are a lot of other self- driving delivery vehicles out there, one of them being Udlev a Bay area startup aiming at the same thing. Toyota recently unveiled another self- driving delivery box called the “e-pallette” intended at local deliveries.

Rumor has also has it that Amazon has acquired a patent for its own self delivery vehicle, which will carry packages from the warehouse directly to a buyer’s doorstep.

When will Nuro and such…, be ingrained into our Daily Living:

Whenever we hear about self- driving cars such as Nuro, we think of when we can own our own self- driving car. But the need of the economy right now is transporting cargo and that is where all efforts to make a self-driving car are focused at.

Transporting goods over-seas by ship or by trucks are also being automated even as we speak or in this case read. But self-driving vehicles such as Nuro are aimed at the small scale for now.

With the number of people ordering things online increasing every minute, there is a lot to be made from getting transport organized to ferry those huge amounts of goods from warehouse or factory or even grocery to one’s doorstep. Recent study puts the value of this market at 86$ billion annually and this business does not show any signs of slowing down too.

Why stop at autonomous cars these days, companies are thinking of newer and faster means by which goods can be delivered safely to their customers and one such way is by using a drone. There were even talks of Amazon using delivery drones.

Getting a horde of delivery drones in the sky has a lot of hurdles as of now but who knows in the future weather this will be another common means of getting a delivery to a buyer’s home.

Artificial Synapse- A Chip Working As Original Brain

When we look at the present world of science, we may see that nothing can beat the processing power of our brain. The good news is that MIT researchers have recently created a new chip, which functions almost as our brain. They have created artificial synapse with the help of new technology.

New Chip Created By Removing the Limitations–

Those, who are engaged in artificial intelligence, know that it is not simple for them to reproduce brain activities. However, they may find it easily manageable while a hardware part has been designed just as our brain. We call it as the neuromorphic computing process. You may find the origin of this type of engineering in 1980s. VLSI systems are used for creating neuro-biological structure. MIT researchers and engineers have solved all the issues and got success with the creation of artificial synapse. They have used transistor-free switching system, which is able to remove all the limitations (high energy consumption).

The Way in Which Our Brain Works–

Our brain has lots of neurons (86±8 billion), and each of these neurons is able to send information to several other active neurons with the use of synapses. These synapses help in passing the chemical to a different neuron. Just as our brains, the small neuromorphic chips have the ability for processing several streams. In order to create the chip, the researchers have applied silicon germanium. This chip has also the power of identifying handwriting accurately.

How the Scientists Have Created the Chip–

For the new structure, the scientists have used crystalline silicon by aligning atoms consistent, and this helps with the flow of ions. To have success in this process, the researchers have designed silicon germanium of a special pattern. Its design is much bigger, and the materials have developed dislocation for creating one ion path. The new chip, created by scientists, contains artificially designed synapses, and every synapse is twenty-five nanometers in length. With the application of voltage, there is an effect on current flow. The difference among synapses is four percent, and the performance level is much uniform and better than metal-made chip.

For the verification of uniformity, the researchers have checked a synapse, which is not under different voltage. They have also done functional tests for the recognition of handwriting models. The chips may have output or input neurons, and each of them fitted to different neurons. The network of neurons may make out several patterns, like our brain.

They dealt with artificial network by using 3 layers, which are attached with two other layers of synapses. They have also applied handwritten data that has several samples. It is also noticed that this network is able to detect the samples successfully in most of the cases.

To conclude, we have to say that artificial synapse development has opened a path for realizing the most functional and big sized neural systems. The researchers are trying to use supercomputer for performing other innovative tasks for future.

If GPS isn’t working then you can still get location detection with this new approach

In this modern digitalized age we are relying too much on the GPS devices. The sales of the GPS devices has broken all the barrier in the last decade and people had started relying on it way too much even for their daily location detection related needs. Whether it is finding the nearest ATM, petrol pump or a museum or popular restaurant we can’t think beyond the GPS devices or based service. Our location detection needs are fuelled by the GPS based services present in our hand held devices. It is worth noting that GPS doesn’t work so well when used indoors and it isn’t quite precise when it comes to locating smaller objects like equipment or goods placed in a large building or even navigating through the unfamiliar surroundings.

Location detection from wireless signals a possible scientifically

A professor going by the name Moe Win has been extensively investigating whether it is possible to make use of the wireless signals to gauge the location. He is professor of aeronautics and astronautics and he has been researching at it for last ten years. He has been successful at getting a number of papers published in the year 2010 which has helped in establishing the very fundamental limits of any such system utilizing the wireless transmitters. In this case the wireless transmitters is able to provide the precise location detection by taking a wide range of features into account like angle of arrival, power and time of flight.

How Location detection works?

Over the years he had perfected his study and being successful in materializing this concept into reality with the help of some colleagues. In the beginning they were able to show how changing the different parameters of the wireless localization system by altering its fundamental limits. The parameters here in question are the power, duration and bandwidth of its transmission. By tinkering with these parameters these researchers were able to determine the best system configuration which helps in bringing the best and most accurate location interferences which indeed results in one of kind location detection. These researchers have also come up with a number of localization algorithms which helps the location detection exercises in the real world scenarios.

Location Detection Experimentation is under way

Win has stressed that at the moment they are working towards developing a theory which will help in determining the limits of the location detection of this new technology. It can be said that they are trying to offers the best location detection solution to the users with the limited resources. Currently they are actively developing algorithms before going for the experimentation to see whether these algorithms remain true to the theory or not.

Secondly through extensive experimentation researchers will also be able to make this technology as efficient as possible. This whole method is based on taking the different network resource constraints like transmission power, duration and bandwidth as being a single cumulative value. But that wouldn’t be the case in the real world therefore extensive experimentation is the need of the hour to making the wireless transmission based location detection an error free reality.

Google offers unlimited cell phone plan in Project Fi with Bill Protection

Less than a year after its commercial launch, Google Fi is now available with Bill protection. The use of a Nexus among the last three models released is however still mandatory. It remains to be seen what are the next steps.

Google’s evolution in telephony in Project Fi with Bill Protection with Bill Protection is very similar to that of Apple, even if the path traveled by the two companies is far from the same. Apple has developed a vertical strategy, controlling each layer of development (design, chipset, operating system, ecosystem and perhaps soon GPU, battery, etc.) and the marketing of its products (even developing his own shops). Google has chosen to rely on a cross-cutting strategy, ranging from online services to the operating system, from the operating system to hardware, and finally from hardware to connectivity. However, you will notice that both companies have the same goal: to be ubiquitous.

Project Fi with Bill Protection is the last step of Google to ensure this presence. Officially, by becoming a virtual operator, Google is exploring new ways to deliver connectivity and market it. The goal: to create an “all-IP” service organized around a data plan where voice calls become secondary. 10 months ago, Google started marketing its product in association with T-Mobile and Sprint. Three conditions to access it: have a Nexus 6, request an invitation and live in the United States, even if the service covers 120 countries.

Although Google’s cellular service business plan, Project Fi with Bill Protection, only requires you to pay for what you use, with the new Bill Protection feature you will not pay more than $ 80 if you use more than 6GB of data.

Google Project Fi with Bill Protection, Google’s mobile phone service that allows you to pay only what you use, wants to compete with the big phone companies by offering its own unlimited cell phone plan.

With the new feature called Bill Protection, the most you can be charged will be US $ 80 plus taxes (unless you make international calls).

Project Fi with Bill Protection has a plan that starts at US $ 20 for unlimited text calls and messages, plus US $ 10 for every GB of data used. With the new function that serves as protection of your account statement, if you use more than 6GB of data you will not have to pay anything additional to what you pay for 6GB.

Google says that once users reach 15GB of data, the speed will be reduced.

However, it is estimated that most users generally use 2GB or less per month and the Project Fi with Bill Protection service allows you to tether (use your cell phone as an Internet connection point for other devices) at no additional charge. In addition, Project Fi with Bill Protection offers free data connectivity when you travel internationally.

This plan makes Project Fi with Bill Protection more and more tempting, but it is still limited to just a few devices, including the Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 2, Nexus 6P and Moto X4 Android One, among a few others.