Update after being on Project Fi for about a month:
I’m enjoying it so far. Even using a bit more data than I did under Verizon, my bill is still $20 less than the nice off-contract deal I got on Verizon. Reception has been fine all around the Greater Boston Area. I occasionally find that my phone has identified a reliable public network and connected securely via a VPN. I wish it found one near work, but it’s nice nonetheless.
The Project Fi app is much better than the Verizon app. It’s faster, simpler, and less invasive. Everything is organized clearly. I haven’t had any support issues, so I can’t speak to that. They did send me a little Lego kit and a USB A->C cable as a holiday gift, which was a nice token.
Free hotspot is great, though I don’t use it often, it’s nice to have the option. Fi also just introduced free SIM cards for tablets and similar devices. It just adds the device to your existing plan at the same $0.01/MB rate, for no additional fee. Just the way it should be.
All in all, I’ll be sticking with it for now. And if I decide not to, I can go to any carrier I want. I feel so free, like those women in 90s menstrual product commercials!
My husband got the nexus 6s with project fi, and he is very happy with it. The phone is huge, but it’s gorgeous, and works well. And the phone and data service are good. And now he can use his cell phone at home (via WiFi) even though we get lousy signal.
Not really, but most of my mobile data usage these day is while I’m at work, which is devoid of safe WiFi. Every now and then, I’m out on the town and I notice the key symbol and get a warm feeling that I’ve got free data for a bit. All told, I’m still coming in $20 less than Verizon, so I’m happy.
The first day out of the house on Fi, reddit is fun decided, for the first time in its career, to download ~450MB of background data, so that put a huge dent in my usage right away. By the end of the month, I was around 2.4GB of usage. The nice thing is that this resulted in an overage charge of $4 instead of the $10-20 I would have had at any major carrier.
I guess I’m not understanding this. I have a Nokia on AT&T and everywhere I go if it finds an open wifi signal it connects or if it’s protected asks me if I have the password. I thought this was standard.
It’s similar but IIRC Project Fi connects to free wifi automatically (it doesn’t ask you about every single network) and securely (you’re using an encrypted connection to Google). It also uses wifi for voice calls, and is supposed to transition from wifi to the cell network during calls without a hitch.
I’m tempted by Project Fi but not quite enough, since my share of a Verizon family plan works out to $35 for ~2 GB. With credits for unused data from Project Fi I’d save $5-$10 per month, but I’d lose out on Verizon’s superior network coverage.
I’m using it. The coverage isn’t as good as what I had when I was buying service from an AT&T reseller, but if you are currently using t Mobile, you should get strictly better service. (you’ll get sprint coverage as well as T-Mobile.)
It worked like a charm when I visited Europe. I landed in Munich, and turned on my phone, and it said, “You are in a new country, data service here will cost the same as at home. This will take a minute to set up”. And soon thereafter I had a working phone with data. I could call my friend, use Google Maps, etc. The only downside was that it was expensive for my friend to text me, because my number counts as a “US” number. But I switched to using Google Hangouts instead of an SMS client, and then our conversation was free. When I crossed the border into the Czech Republic, it again warned me it would take a minute to set up, and immediately thereafter I had coverage again.
I was looking for convenient international coverage more than I was looking to save money, but it is a little cheaper than what I had used. I use cellular data mostly, not the wifi, except in places where I was already using wifi. And weirdly, in one of those places I now can’t send email. (I can get email.) To send, I have to turn off wifi briefly. So, I guess it’s slightly glitchy?
I’m a little sad about not having AT&T quality of service in the US any more, but mostly I’m happy with it.
I’ve been using it since last summer (had Verizon before) and I haven’t had an problems. Took it to Ottawa over christmas and everything worked just fine (was able to use Android Auto with my rental car). Going to be trying it out in Costa Rica in a week, so will see how that goes.
I think easy international use is the big draw of the service. The price is good for people who don’t use much data, but comparable to other low-cost options. But the “works in other countries for no extra charge” aspect is unique.
(disclosure: I work for the Big G, but not in that department.)
and now it looks like Sprint and T Mobile are finally merging. Of course that will take a while to happen and the gov will need to approve it. AT&T tried to buy T Mobile and that was blocked by feds.
The main downside I see is that for now they only offer a few phones to use on Google Fi. They have the Nexus, Pixel and a few others.
Finally, again. For the fourth time. Here’s me, holding my breath…
Anyway, I’m still a fan of Project Fi. I’m not much of a world traveler, but I go to different parts of the Caribbean regularly. Wherever I land and wherever I go, it’s always $10 per GB. Same as in town.
They would have merged years ago, except that economics textbooks state that when a market isn’t a monopoly, but there are only a few competitors, it is an oligopoly. A Nash Equilibria price exists that the market will arrive at that is lower than the monopoly price but higher than the free market price.
Anyways, going from 4->3 wireless companies will, by this accepted, mainstream economics model, result in higher market prices for service.
I could comment on why the government officials now in power might fail to base their policy around well accepted theories of economics, but I’d probably get an infraction for bringing politics into it.
Verizon charges you $60 for what I get for $30. MetroPCS gets a bad name because they’re not contractual, but I’ve used them for years, even though I’m not poor anymore and don’t have to. Their network isn’t bad at all. And when you run out of data, you purchase, what, I think another GB is $5.
Anywho, I’ve been looking at the Google stuff too. I’ll wait until they officially release, and then 2 or 3 months before passing judgment. I don’t have the itchy tech finger some people have. (I end up with all the toys and gadgets and light-up keyboards but I make sure I get the best of the best before I jump in. Usually. Mostly.)
I have Tmobile and there’s no way I’d save with Project Fi. I’ve looked into it. I use probably 10GB per month, and have gone as high as 20GB. I get that with no throttling at Tmobile for $70/month. With Fi, it sounds like I’d be paying over $100, and could go significantly higher some months.
you must be away from WiFi spots a lot to use that amount of data , Google Fi only charges for cellular data, not WiFi. I checked and I use about 1-2 Gb a month cellular .
