Google's Project Fi - Google's radically different approach, usage-based pricing

Google is set to launch its long-anticipated mobile service, now called Project Fi, and as you’d expect from the Silicon Valley giant and mobile industry outsider, it isn’t just rolling out stock data and voice plans. Instead, Google will offer a radically different approach to mobile data billing as its service on an invite-only basis over the next few weeks: usage-based pricing.

Usage-based pricing simply means you pay only for the data you consume. In Google’s case, it’s charging customers $1 for every 100-megabyte increment. According to Google’s Blog, you can buy a one-gigabyte plan for $10 a month or a two-gigabyte plan for $20 a month—but if you only use 1.4 gigabytes of data, then Google will only charge $14 for it. If you go over your plan, Google will charge you an another dollar for every additional 100 megabytes. You’re still on the hook for Project Fi’s $20 monthly basic services charge—which includes unlimited voice, text and Wi-Fi access—but when it comes to wireless (3G and 4G) data, you pay only for what you use.