Last year we took a two week vacation in Boston. I had to pay 16€ for 1GB/Week of data with my German T-Mobile contract, even when using T-Mobile US. This really sounds like a nice alternative.
Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
11–20 of 216 posts
Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
#12Is the app available in Europe or in the Google Play store? Will phones be able to handle 300kbit/s network speed in case an automatic update is running or an app is trying to download something?
iOS has a 'low data' mode option, which is helpful for low caps (and presumably, low speed) connections, as it doesn't do automatic app updates or photo syncing when that's enabled. It prompts whenever you want to download an app or an update with the size of the update and "are you sure?", which is handy just to have as a default anyway.
Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
#13This seems pretty cool, so it's free slow cell service in exchange for watching a video ad every hour, with optional prepaid plans for higher speeds/no ads. It does seem that your cellular is only active for an hour after you last watch an ad, which is unfortunate if you want to receive notifications throughout the day.
Otherwise people would use it for IoT infrastructure. I certainly would.
This infra would probably last a week max.
Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
#14Is the app available in Europe or in the Google Play store? Will phones be able to handle 300kbit/s network speed in case an automatic update is running or an app is trying to download something?
> Will phones be able to handle 300kbit/s network speed in case an automatic update is running or an app is trying to download something?
"Handle" what exactly?
If your phone downloads data, it will consume those 300kbit/s
Android Devices with Android 7.0 or higher should have a "Data Saver" feature (check buttons in Notification area) which can limit data-traffic to foreground apps, in case you want to reduce the amount of "data vampires". Especially helpful when abroad...
Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
#15I'd be interested in the paid version. The website doesn't have a calculator, so I'd have to download the app... No go.
Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
#16This seems pretty cool, so it's free slow cell service in exchange for watching a video ad every hour, with optional prepaid plans for higher speeds/no ads. It does seem that your cellular is only active for an hour after you last watch an ad, which is unfortunate if you want to receive notifications throughout the day.
How does it know that you watched the ad? Does it quiz you or what? It actually sounds terrible. I can get a minimal prepaid sim for $30/year (200MB/mo + basic voice and text) and that sounds preferable to this thing with ads. https://www.ebay.com/itm/133196831828
It seems like it's your network provider so they have access to your network activity, seems like enough to know if you've watched a video or not.
And sure, you can pay and get a better experience, but not sure that's a fair comparison, this is free after all. If you can't afford to pay anything (sometimes people end up in shitty situations), then maybe watching a video for free internet isn't that big of a deal, when the alternative is no internet at all.
Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Otherwise people would use it for IoT infrastructure. I certainly would.
That's exactly what my mind jumped to when seeing this (free IoT!), can almost expect someone will try to build some sort of automated video watcher to work around this caveat and abuse it :)
that's fine. small abuse isn't worth the cost to enforce. abuse at scale, however...
Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
#18Can you explain how your paid tier works? Is it 1.95€ a day unlimited worldwide, or are there charges on top of that?
It does say, “Pay a fair local rate.” So, I'm going to assume it is €1,95/day + local rate (not roaming rate).
Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
#19This seems pretty cool, so it's free slow cell service in exchange for watching a video ad every hour, with optional prepaid plans for higher speeds/no ads. It does seem that your cellular is only active for an hour after you last watch an ad, which is unfortunate if you want to receive notifications throughout the day.
Still some non-travel potential I think. I might set this up on an old smartphone to keep in my car as an emergency backup, or maybe for avoiding risk to my primary like being on a boat, at the beach, etc.
Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU
#20This seems pretty cool, so it's free slow cell service in exchange for watching a video ad every hour, with optional prepaid plans for higher speeds/no ads. It does seem that your cellular is only active for an hour after you last watch an ad, which is unfortunate if you want to receive notifications throughout the day.
How does it know that you watched the ad? Does it quiz you or what? It actually sounds terrible. I can get a minimal prepaid sim for $30/year (200MB/mo + basic voice and text) and that sounds preferable to this thing with ads. https://www.ebay.com/itm/133196831828
This isn't supposed to replace your domestic carrier.