Google’s Project Fi is getting a coverage boost thanks to a new partnership with U.S. Cellular.
According to a Wednesday blog post from Google, U.S. Cellular has joined Project Fi as its latest network partner, adding more cellular coverage for the hybrid network.
Announced in April 2015, Project Fi offers wireless service that jumps back and forth between Wi-Fi and LTE signals from carrier partners, depending on which is the strongest in the vicinity. Project Fi already has partner agreements with T-Mobile and Sprint.
By offering access to multiple cellular networks, Google said Project Fi has been able to offer users a connection nearly 99 percent of the time, with about 95 percent of cellular time spent on LTE. Google said those figures will improve with the addition of U.S. Cellular’s network.
Google said U.S. Cellular’s coverage will automatically roll out to users in the coming weeks.
The fifth largest wireless carrier in the United States, U.S. Cellular offers coverage in 23 states with 4G LTE coverage for nearly all of their urban and rural subscribers.
A U.S. Cellular spokeswoman on Thursday said the comapny is “excited” for Project Fi customers to begin using its network.
“We look forward to working with Google and keeping Project Fi customers connected in the big and small cities and rural communities where we provide wireless service,” the U.S. Cellular spokeswoman said.
Project Fi, which was originally offered as in invitation-only service, was made public in March.
The service offers unlimited domestic talk and text and unlimited international texts for $20 per month, with an additional $10 dollars per month for each gigabyte of data used. Unused data is credited to the customer at the end of the month.
