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Project Fi by Google

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Re: Project Fi by Google

#471

Post by discordance »

noobermin wrote: post #449
r00fus wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you travel to? When we went to France, I got great speeds (almost 3G-ish) roaming on several providers there (IIRC, SFR and Bouygues) in all sorts of locations, including very remote ones. In the end, we paid $40 (all for calls @ $0.20/min) for 3 weeks of near-normal usage with 2 iPhones. To me that's very much a game changer - previously I paid double that same amount as an accidentally access charge (forg…

I have to echo this comment. I recently travelled to Japan and Singapore, and I managed really well on the 3G speeds I got from T-mobile's free roaming. I'll admit I didn't spend my time there streaming youtube videos, but I did use instagram and occasionally google maps, although it was slow for maps sometimes (then again, maps is slow here in the US too, it's most likely my SG SIII not playing well with the latest…

I usually cache google maps offline when traveling to another country: https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/3273567?hl=en

Re: Project Fi by Google

#472

Post by antaviana »

smacktoward wrote: post #171
wiremine wrote: post #92

For 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…

What I don't get is, what's in this for Sprint and T-Mobile? Currently a user of their network is a customer they "own" -- they deal with that customer directly. Now they have Google sitting between them and the user, which effectively commoditizes their service; Google could switch them out for another network down the road without the user ever knowing or caring. That's great for Google, and probably also great for…

Since there is the Nexus 6 requirement acting as a throttle, it allows them to carry out a controlled experiment on a very small sample for this business model. It also gives them some visiblity for Google's future plans, as to be more prepared for them.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#473

Post by whoopdedo »

modeless wrote: post #467
whoopdedo wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real incentive is improving speeds makes shared-bandwidth networks more cost effective. You can serve the same number of customers for less cost. Each connection receives its data quicker then disconnects so someone else can use the air space. Time is the more important measure of cellular network usage than bytes. I think it would be more convenient for customers to be billed per minute. At $10/GB if my average…

> You can serve the same number of customers for less cost. No, upgrading the network allows you to serve more customers at higher cost (the cost of the upgrades). If you have unlimited data plans, you can only recoup those upgrade costs by recruiting more customers because existing customers pay the same regardless of the speed. Recruiting more customers is also costly and affected by many more factors than just net…

> No, upgrading the network allows you to serve more customers at higher cost (the cost of the upgrades)

Upgrades are a one-time cost. You charge a higher rate for access to the faster network until the investment is paid off then you phase down to all customers. Then your operating cost is lower per subscriber in the long run.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#474

Post by asavadatti »

wiremine wrote: post #92

For 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…

The video looks like something directly out of the TV show "Silicon Valley".

Re: Project Fi by Google

#475

Post by dba7dba »

the_watcher wrote: post #455
wiremine wrote: post #92

For 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)

I suspect no. iOS users pull down far more data. And it's Apple versus Google. Not going to happen.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#477

Post by kijin »

wiremine wrote: post #92

For 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…

The $20 base charge with "unlimited talk and text" makes me feel like I'd be throwing away money in exchange for nothing. Unlimited only makes sense if I'm going to use a reasonable amount of it. These days, I talk barely 20 minutes a month, and I haven't sent a single text so far this month. Apps that use data are rapidly replacing both of them, and people who use a Nexus 6 with Google are likely to be at the forefront of this trend.

I would really prefer a much lower base rate with zero talk/text and reasonable "overage" charges. Even at the old system of $.30/minute and $.25/message, It would probably come out cheaper for me. The overage charges will also encourage me to use more data instead of talk/text, and isn't that what Google wants me to do anyway?

(My mother is with a South Korean MVNO and pays a $0 base rate, with "overage" charges at $.0018 per second of outgoing calls and $.02 per outgoing text. Crazy, huh? Pay-as-you-go data is more expensive with her carrier, but she doesn't need much data.)

All in all, apart from easy international roaming, I don't see anything special in this offer. It's the same old American carrier racket, only more expensive. I expected more from Google.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#478

Post by modeless »

whoopdedo wrote: post #473
modeless wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can serve the same number of customers for less cost. No, upgrading the network allows you to serve more customers at higher cost (the cost of the upgrades). If you have unlimited data plans, you can only recoup those upgrade costs by recruiting more customers because existing customers pay the same regardless of the speed. Recruiting more customers is also costly and affected by many more factors than just net…

> No, upgrading the network allows you to serve more customers at higher cost (the cost of the upgrades) Upgrades are a one-time cost. You charge a higher rate for access to the faster network until the investment is paid off then you phase down to all customers. Then your operating cost is lower per subscriber in the long run.

These days, upgrades are a continuous cost. By the time you've paid off an upgrade it's time to upgrade again. Charging a higher rate costs you customers, and with fewer customers you don't even need the extra capacity you just bought. Also many customers are on contracts so you can't increase rates right away.

In contrast, with pay-per-GB, upgrades increase revenue automatically without losing customers. You don't have to increase your rates and you can probably even decrease them and still increase revenue.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#479

Post by natural219 »

kijin wrote: post #477
wiremine wrote: post #92

For 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…

The $20 base charge with "unlimited talk and text" makes me feel like I'd be throwing away money in exchange for nothing. Unlimited only makes sense if I'm going to use a reasonable amount of it. These days, I talk barely 20 minutes a month, and I haven't sent a single text so far this month. Apps that use data are rapidly replacing both of them, and people who use a Nexus 6 with Google are likely to be at the forefr…

Ummm...how is this different from every other cell provider ever? Like where can you currently get anywhere near this level of access for less than $20?

Re: Project Fi by Google

#480

Post by bobbles »

davesque wrote: post #315

Why is it that companies these days are so incredibly bad at simply saying what it is they're trying to sell you?

Lmn4d3 stand incorporated.

"do you sell lemonade?"

"what we offer is a new way to experience the quenching of thirst"

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