Some Google Maps Users May Get Free Wireless Service for the Rest of 2022

This illustration picture shows Google map application displaying popular times for transit station and how busy it is at the moment on a smartphone in Arlington, Virginia on June 9, 2020.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

If free wireless service for the rest of 2022 sounds like a journey worth taking, consider turning to Google Maps as your navigation tool – and start contributing.

Google Fi, Google’s cell phone service, is offering select users free Google Fi service until the end of the year, the website AndroidCentral reports.

With average monthly cell phone rates at around $906 to $1,281 a year, free cell phone service would save you $226 to $320 through the end of 2022. Google Fi monthly plans cost $20-$40 for unlimited data.

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So how do you get on board? Google is apparently aiming the offer at super users of Google Maps, called Local Guides, who contribute to making the service more accurate by providing descriptions, reviews and photos of small businesses, travel destinations and more.

It works like this: You sign up and start contributing. Then Google apparently finds you; access isn’t something you can apply for. Reports say Google started emailing select users the offer over the weekend.

And the smartest way to use Google Fi, which utilizes T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular towers, is to have a Design for Fi phone, which includes Google Pixel phones and select Samsung Galaxy phones. Google Fi is a MVNO, or mobile virtual network operator, which utilizes the major cell phone carriers but usually offers plans lower in price.

Local Guides who get the Google Fi offer have until Oct. 31 to redeem it, reports say.

Bob was Senior Editor at Kiplinger.com for seven years and is now a contributor to the website. He has more than 40 years of experience in online, print and visual journalism. Bob has worked as an award-winning writer and editor in the Washington, D.C., market as well as at news organizations in New York, Michigan and California. Bob joined Kiplinger in 2016, bringing a wealth of expertise covering retail, entertainment, and money-saving trends and topics. He was one of the first journalists at a daily news organization to aggressively cover retail as a specialty and has been lauded in the retail industry for his expertise. Bob has also been an adjunct and associate professor of print, online and visual journalism at Syracuse University and Ithaca College. He has a master’s degree from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a bachelor’s degree in communications and theater from Hope College.