On an unrelated note - very cool to see Polymer used in production by Google. I was afraid it was left to the wayside.
Is this what you're talking about https://www.polymer-project.org/0.5/ ?
Project Fi by Google
451–460 of 608 posts
Re: Project Fi by Google
#452Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow are those smartphones? Somehow I'm paying $100/mo for just my iPhone, 3 gigs of data and unlimited text.
With T-mobile I pay $100 (+ ~$8 tax/fees) for 2 smartphones with unlimited everything (data is never cut off or throttled as well). Look into a new plan!
I've been paying $80 + 2 x $10 for 3GB of high-speed data each. After reading this comment, I switched over to unlimited for the same price. Thanks!
Re: Project Fi by Google
#453This is great. I was hoping the data charges would be cheaper. The T-mobile $30 prepaid plan gives you unlimited data with the first 5 gigs at LTE speeds. You also get 100 minutes. This works incredibly well for me as I mostly use my phone for data. If I need to make a call, I'll use google hangouts over LTE.
$30 for 5 gigs? When did T-Mobile start offering this? Why am I then paying $50 for 2 gigs?
They've offered it for a while I think? It's a pre-paid, look in Other monthly plans. It's pretty hidden, I don't think they want everyone to know about it. Also can be Walmart only, but I think you can do it online just fine. http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans
Re: Project Fi by Google
#454Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What I don't get is, what's in this for Sprint and T-Mobile? Both Sprint and T-Mobile have to build physical infrasture, both to offer basic services (e.g. 3G, talk/text) but to also compete (4G, LTE, etc). Building infrastructure is really expensive. They need land, licences, power, and a network to connect that tower to (assuming it isn't just a relay). So both networks have this HUGE sunk cost. In an ideal world…
Not only that, but because it switches to the faster provider, and assuming that Project Fi pays out to providers based on percentage of service used, it's much more in Tmo/Sprint's best interests to upgrade their service - considering the switch to their competitor is automatic and based on quality.
Upgrading their service is expensive. T-Mobile upgrades, then Sprint has to upgrade to compete, then T-Mobile has to upgrade again, then Sprint...
Instead what's going to happen, T-Mobile and Sprint both agree to offer the same performance, or focus on different regions.
It's like selling slices of pizza on the street. If you're smart, you and your competitor agree to sell at $5/slice. If you drop to $4, sure you'll get more customers for a short period of time, but then your competitor drops to $4, and now you both just cut 20% off your revenue for no reason.
Re: Project Fi by Google
#455For those who don't want to read the FAQ or find the video incredibly unhelpful [1]: a. It only supports the Nexus 6 out of the gate. b. It automatically switches you to the "fastest" network available. Partners out of the gate are Sprint and T-mobile. Sounds like it prefers Wifi, then 4G LTE, and then degrades down to 3G or 2G. c. Pricing is $20 for unlimited talk (domestic) and text (domestic and international) and…
Will it ever support iPhones? Obviously, as the competitor, they have some incentive to play by Apple rules and only support devices running their preferred OS, but at the same time, they make such a big deal over the open protocol of Android, plus have a general strategy of "get everyone using Google as much as possible," that I'd assume they'd eventually roll out to iOS (unless the issue is on Apple's end)
Re: Project Fi by Google
#456For those who don't want to read the FAQ or find the video incredibly unhelpful [1]: a. It only supports the Nexus 6 out of the gate. b. It automatically switches you to the "fastest" network available. Partners out of the gate are Sprint and T-mobile. Sounds like it prefers Wifi, then 4G LTE, and then degrades down to 3G or 2G. c. Pricing is $20 for unlimited talk (domestic) and text (domestic and international) and…
So, it does exactly the same thing my Nexus one did 5+ years ago before they bought companies and shut them down?
if you don't know what i'm talking about, android got a SIP client working pretty fast from the comunity, and the best provider was using gizmo5. which google bought one year before launching the nexus one. Then on year after launching nexus one, they pulled an apple on it and shut down the service.
then they launched google voice. which was a we-own-all-your-data-in-the-cloud version of gizmo5, but it was nice because they gave me lots of free stuff that almost never worked (phone dialer integration, sms, etc). until the clients they released became a piece of garbage (the last build is still from 2012, then they started to force the features trhu google plus and more recently via hangouts)
Re: Project Fi by Google
#457Why does Google keeps over-engineering every single product except the one thing they are making money of: Google Search?!?
Re: Project Fi by Google
#458For those who don't want to read the FAQ or find the video incredibly unhelpful [1]: a. It only supports the Nexus 6 out of the gate. b. It automatically switches you to the "fastest" network available. Partners out of the gate are Sprint and T-mobile. Sounds like it prefers Wifi, then 4G LTE, and then degrades down to 3G or 2G. c. Pricing is $20 for unlimited talk (domestic) and text (domestic and international) and…
So, it does exactly the same thing my Nexus one did 5+ years ago before they bought companies and shut them down? if you don't know what i'm talking about, android got a SIP client working pretty fast from the comunity, and the best provider was using gizmo5. which google bought one year before launching the nexus one. Then on year after launching nexus one, they pulled an apple on it and shut down the service. then…
Google Voice was from their GrandCentral acquisition.
Gizmo5 was just SIP.
Re: Project Fi by Google
#459Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not only that, but because it switches to the faster provider, and assuming that Project Fi pays out to providers based on percentage of service used, it's much more in Tmo/Sprint's best interests to upgrade their service - considering the switch to their competitor is automatic and based on quality.
Upgrading their service is expensive. T-Mobile upgrades, then Sprint has to upgrade to compete, then T-Mobile has to upgrade again, then Sprint... Instead what's going to happen, T-Mobile and Sprint both agree to offer the same performance, or focus on different regions. It's like selling slices of pizza on the street. If you're smart, you and your competitor agree to sell at $5/slice. If you drop to $4, sure you'll…
Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium
Re: Project Fi by Google
#460Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait really? The email I got from them made it sound like it would roll over forever. I'm gonna have to go read the fine print now. That's a big bummer if you are correct.
Yeah it is only month to month (previous month's unused rolls over to the next month only).
Well that's a bummer. Oh well.