Project fi announced, Google MVNO for $30/month 1 GB

[Artdeco]

https://fi.google.com/about/

Interesting idea, and if you don't use all your data every month, you get credited back to your account.

$20/month unlimited voice/text, then the data is tiered for $10/month/GB.

Curious to see how well it handles the hand offs between WiFi and the 2 cell carriers.

Also, wondering if you need an unlocked nexus 6 for it to work or if I can buy a carrier locked nexus 6...

 

[poofyhairguy]

Very tempting, too bad its Nexus 6 only.

Come on Google, give us a new Nexus early this year!!!

 

[paperwastage]

you need a nexus 6 (for that network switching to work properly)

I think you should be able to use any phone eventually

(Google has to setup it's own MCC/(virtual)MNC, sprint/tmobile has to allow those MCC/MNCs to register onto their network. no auto-switch though, the phone will only switch if the existing provider has no service) - basically like any other MVNOs

 

[Uppsala9496]

Straight Talk is $50 for unlimited voice/text and 3GB data. Same price as what Google is doing at that level.
Nice that it is cheaper if you are under 3GB, but not nearly as price competitive as I thought it was going to be.

 

[Compddd]

Tmobile still seems like a better deal to me for those of us with families.

 

[paperwastage]

Tmobile still seems like a better deal to me for those of us with families.

well, the google fi plan doesn't have any bulk discounts

all the traditional/big 4 are heavy on bulk discounts (eg big data bucket, share with others... cheaper to add new lines to existing plans)

 

[openwheel]

Money back with un-used data. What a brilliant idea!!! That's teach people to actually use their phone for productivity, rather than wasting precious bandwidth. Let the youtubers and hipsters pay more.

 

[poofyhairguy]

well, the google fi plan doesn't have any bulk discounts

all the traditional/big 4 are heavy on bulk discounts (eg big data bucket, share with others... cheaper to add new lines to existing plans)

Yeah this is a nerd plan. Which rules.

 

[openwheel]

well, the google fi plan doesn't have any bulk discounts

all the traditional/big 4 are heavy on bulk discounts (eg big data bucket, share with others... cheaper to add new lines to existing plans)

Not everyone wants to be attached to daddy's plan though.

 

[cronos]

Disappointed is probably too strong of a word, but as a supporter and long time user of Google Voice via Hangouts, which the primary point of which is that you no longer need minutes/text if you have cell data or wi-fi, it is discouraging to find that Project Fi *still* needs a $20/month 'entry fee' which is supposedly for unlimited minutes and text (that Hangouts users don't need).

Especially with a name of 'Project Fi', I was hoping that Google would provide us with at least an option of a data only plan, without the need to buy minutes/txt (or maybe could use a minutes/txt as an addon on a paygo basis). I mean, it seems like it's supposed to be WiFi-centric and data-dependant, right? Oh well.

 

[A5]

Straight Talk is $50 for unlimited voice/text and 3GB data. Same price as what Google is doing at that level.
Nice that it is cheaper if you are under 3GB, but not nearly as price competitive as I thought it was going to be.

Money back for unused data is a nice deal, especially if they have as much wifi as they claim. Will be interesting to hear what people think.

 

[quikah]

This plan doesn't really make much sense. They are ignoring their Google Voice services. $20 for unlimited talk, but you have GV for that. There international calling rates are $0.20/minute. GV is $0.01-$0.05. Just seems odd that they wouldn't try to leverage GV with this plan.

Seems like it would only really be attractive for the international data.

 

[Artdeco]

This plan doesn't really make much sense. They are ignoring their Google Voice services. $20 for unlimited talk, but you have GV for that. There international calling rates are $0.20/minute. GV is $0.01-$0.05. Just seems odd that they wouldn't try to leverage GV with this plan.

Seems like it would only really be attractive for the international data.

Google has a problem, that it can't piss of the carriers too much, Android in the US is dependent on carriers selling their phones.

 

[cronos]

This plan doesn't really make much sense. They are ignoring their Google Voice services. $20 for unlimited talk, but you have GV for that. There international calling rates are $0.20/minute. GV is $0.01-$0.05. Just seems odd that they wouldn't try to leverage GV with this plan.

Seems like it would only really be attractive for the international data.

Which is what I said above. But I think you're mistaken, that 20c rate is for calling *from* another country to other countries. Calling from the US to another country does use GV rates.

 

[soccerballtux]

https://fi.google.com/about/

Interesting idea, and if you don't use all your data every month, you get credited back to your account.

$20/month unlimited voice/text, then the data is tiered for $10/month/GB.

Curious to see how well it handles the hand offs between WiFi and the 2 cell carriers.

Also, wondering if you need an unlocked nexus 6 for it to work or if I can buy a carrier locked nexus 6...

I've always been able to attenuate signal on the fringe of a wifi connection by holding the phone tightly.

This is probably one reason it's Nexus 6 only-- they know for a fact, because they know the hardware, how close to the hotspot the phone is.

In spite of that, wifi connections are always sketchy. What if someone sopps up all the bandwidth with a download? You can't predict that's going to happen.

Based on the reality that Google never pre-emptively handled Wifi->cell data transition, and it took them years to handle smoothly transitioning data->Wifi (remember the days when you'd connect to the hotspot and have to hit refresh to finish loading the page?), I a highly skeptical they'll get this effectively rolled out UNLESS they put me in charge of managing handling the test procedures (that's based on my own knowledge of how particular I am when I run testing vs. what I've seen from them in the past).

I also don't see why this isn't an option for Nexus 5.

 

[cronos]

Soccerballtux, TMobile and Sprint already have WiFi calling technology implemented. Google does not need to reinvent the wheel.

 

[Red Storm]

Yeah it's odd how they're ignoring GV users. I really was expecting to see a data only option for those of us who use GV. Oh well, $50 per month plus getting credit for unused data and on both Sprint and Tmobile is not bad at all.

 

[isekii]

what wifi connections is this going to connect to?
Will it connect/authenticate automatically?

 

[Uppsala9496]

Wonder how the credit for unused data will work. Will it be in 1GB increments? You pay for 3GB and use 2.01GB and no credit?

 

[Midwayman]

$10/GB is really disappointing. Pricing is 'meh' Nothing disrupting about this strategy at all. If you want to deal with wifi calling might as well go with republic wireless and really save some money.

 

[cronos]

Wonder how the credit for unused data will work. Will it be in 1GB increments? You pay for 3GB and use 2.01GB and no credit?

The slider on their website shows 0.1 GB increments.

 

[Herr Kutz]

I'd rather be on cricket wireless since it's on AT&T's network and is cost competitive with these plans (if you actually use your data), even if it throttles LTE to 8mbps.

 

[Red Storm]

Wonder how the credit for unused data will work. Will it be in 1GB increments? You pay for 3GB and use 2.01GB and no credit?

From their site it states that if you go over, you only pay for the amount you go over, not a flat $10/1GB. So it should work the same way when you're under your cap.

 

[vi edit]

Dual radio LTE sounds interesting...so will this hit both VZW and AT&T towers?

 

[cronos]

Dual sim LTE sounds interesting...so will this hit both VZW and AT&T towers?

You meant TMobile and Sprint? Unless that's intentionally in jest