Those who till a couple of weeks ago thought that Android is just a vaporware would be biting their tongue now. First it was the release of actual platform on Nov 5, and as if that wasn’t enough, now comes the news from Wall Street Journal that it’s planning to buy wireless spectrum that it can use to provide mobile/internet services.

WSJ also reports that at it’s Mountain View center, Google is already operating an advanced high-speed wireless network with Android powered mobiles running on it.

When I came across this news, I was really surprised - will Google start competing with the likes of AT&T and Verizon? That’s not the kind of image that Google holds in mind of most of us. But then no one knows for sure whether they want to really operate it themselves, or would they find a partner to do it for them.

Whether they operate the network themselves (unlikely IMHO), or find a partner, one thing is clear - they want to have more control over the way things are in mobile world instead of accepting the varied degree of support they may get from mobile companies when it comes to supporting Android based applications.

What Google may also wants to do is to be able to provide mobile and internet services at a more reasonable cost based on “open” standards so that it has better adoption rate. Many mobile companies block certain services because of “security concerns” and same can happen to Google provided services as well. However things change quite a bit if Google owns a network.

But how can Google make the mobile services cost effective? I think Google is not in it for making money based on the monthly mobile bill that we pay, instead they are using it as a stepping stone for turning mobiles into a platform that earns them bread and butter. Of course I am talking about advertisements and online services. This is where they may have an edge over other mobile companies since for those companies our monthly mobile bill is the only source of income!

Google’s seriousness in the whole mobile affair also has to do with with enabling mobile phones to run social apps built on android/opensocial. I had posted this before Android release, and the recent developments give more reasons to believe that they are aiming to turn phones into mobile networking tool!