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Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU

firsty.app

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Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU

#91

Post by rglullis »

diggan wrote: post #16
throwaway81523 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, whe…

Unless this company is targeting the "homeless people who are denied entry at public spaces" market, how hard is it to get access to a free wifi hotspot?

Also, if you are such a bad situation that you can not afford to pay for phone service, what is the point of having this offered as a global solution?

Seriously, what is the audience here?

Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU

#92

Post by rubyfan »

kristopolous wrote: post #17
fullstackchris wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Around 2000 there was a dial-up service called Juno. It took about 15% of your screen to show a rotating banner ad and had some time limit for use. As far as I recall every restriction was implemented in the client.

As such there was a really easy workaround to connect directly without using their software and bypass every restriction.

A guy I know used that workaround and at some point got a letter in the mail from them because he was in the top 1% of users of the service which was very costly to them so they terminated the account.

My hunch is even small scale abuse of a system can have a big effect. Even if it seems small it still might be impactful.

Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU

#93

Post by universa1 »

progbits wrote: post #85
kristopolous wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Otherwise people would use it for IoT infrastructure. I certainly would.

Are there cheap LTE+ embedded modules that support eSIM? All the ESP32/Arduino boards with mobile data that I've used in the past required a physical SIM card.

mhm, at least for older phones there is stuff like: https://esim.me/

no clue if it works to set the card up in a phone and then use it in a board?!

Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU

#95

Post by brnt »

rubyfan wrote: post #92
kristopolous wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's fine. small abuse isn't worth the cost to enforce. abuse at scale, however...

Around 2000 there was a dial-up service called Juno. It took about 15% of your screen to show a rotating banner ad and had some time limit for use. As far as I recall every restriction was implemented in the client. As such there was a really easy workaround to connect directly without using their software and bypass every restriction. A guy I know used that workaround and at some point got a letter in the mail from…

Reminds me of free dotcoms back in the late 1990s just up until the dotcom bubble burst: free but with a frame with a banner. 14 year old me enjoyed learning how to load (and then design around) my own page in that frame.

Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU

#96

Post by universa1 »

rglullis wrote: post #91
diggan wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, whe…

Unless this company is targeting the "homeless people who are denied entry at public spaces" market, how hard is it to get access to a free wifi hotspot? Also, if you are such a bad situation that you can not afford to pay for phone service, what is the point of having this offered as a global solution? Seriously, what is the audience here?

having this as a backup sounds nice to be honest. getting a sim card in the traveled to country was sometimes a bit of a hassle in the past... nowadays probably not so much. anyways, this might provide the time to get a sim card locally, as those often times used to be a lot cheaper, than some travel sim... and also might provide different coverage provider / network wise, depending which network they roam on...

Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU

#97

Post by EwanToo »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #59
pxx wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airalo is nowhere near competitive anymore. Check http://esimdb.com , which includes airalo, to do a true price comparison.

I have a question. I had a Google Voice US number for almost 10 years that I lost because I could not do a verification from another US number. I verified with Twilio once as I was able to make their product work and receive a SMS from Google Voice but I couldn't make it work the next time. I had created that Google Voice number back in the day when those SIP apps were a thing which offered you a second number. (I li…

None of the low cost providers that I'm aware of support SMS or a phone number in general.

Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU

#98

Post by cultofmetatron »

fulltime digital nomad here. I literally hop from country to country on a semimonthly basis.

I just dont' see the point of this.

starting at 1.95 a day comes out to around $57 a month..

I currently have my US number and sms via google fi and use airalo to download a data only sim, (iphone 14 dial esim ftw)

Total cost is less than this and around the same if I'm getting hot and heavy with my data usage.

the free usage tier seems interesting but again, people who can travel like me absolutely prioritze not spending time watching ads.

Re: Firsty.app – free 300kbit/s eSIM for US/EU

#100

Post by brnt »

tamirzb wrote: post #53

People here seem to quickly react by recommending their favorite travel eSIM provider. I'd propose what I find to be a bit more useful, a website that compares a bunch of different travel eSIM providers: https://esimdb.com No affiliation from my side. I find it nice to know I always have many options.

First plan I check is no longer offered though. Second is more expensive. I guess these things tend to go out of date fast...
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