Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Project Fi by Google

fi.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

601–608 of 608 posts

Re: Project Fi by Google

#601

Post by Cantremeber »

unprepare wrote: post #314
Cantremeber wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the same plan we've got 5 people at the same price. There's a way to remove subsidized phones from the plan which saved close to 20 dollars per line for us. The downside is flag ships now cost 600, and so we all use either something old and used or a moto g.

old? I bought an LG G3 like two months ago for 350 bucks, came with a case, 64GB sd card, and all the original packaging and stuff. Was also in mint contition (the back of the case was scratched up a bit, but i dont really care for cases) Anecdotal i gues, but if you look around its quite easy to find new flagship phones for very cheap, especially right around when the new iphones come out and people are clamoring to…

Can't really call 350 bucks cheap. But yeah that's why used and hand me down devices are quite common in our family. (We have like three S3s that were all bought by someone else on contract and given to us free by someone upgrading.)

Moto G is my personal preference though I bump into the limitations of that a lot.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#602

Post by usrusr »

sukilot wrote: post #597
NKCSS wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need to make money; they earn more money off of advertisements served. This plan enables people to be 'more online' while mobile, even in other countries. Google has always been trying to lower the barriers to the internet (slow javascript -> Chrome (v8 engine), the internet baloons in africa, and now a global cellular/mobile internet service at decent rates).

But no one clicks on ads on mobile.

People consume Google Maps on mobile. Maps is much more the global yellow pages of the 21st century than targeted banner ads or even web search could ever be. I don't know how much Google has started monetizing Maps yet, but the market potential is huge: "OK Google take me to an Italian restaurant" is still much more likely to end with money changing hands than "OK Google take me to a website that talks about pizza". I even think that the primary motivation for creating Android was to secure that spot. Fi would fit very well into that strategy, because Maps gets more powerful when the user is far from home. Therefore, unacceptable international data charges are disproportionally bad for Maps. If fi starts a race to the bottom for data roaming prices, Maps will benefit a lot.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#603

Post by cthalupa »

_delirium wrote: post #586
cthalupa wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ouch. I didn't notice that it's limited to 256k/3G. T-Mobile offers unlimited data internationally as part of their simple choice unlimited plan. It's limited to 256k speeds (Which in my experience, I have gotten basically exactly 256k when I've used it in the Netherlands and South Africa). You have the option of buying 4G speed bandwidth for a fairly reasonable price - though still a bit higher than the Google Fi da…

> You have the option of buying 4G speed bandwidth for a fairly reasonable price - though still a bit higher than the Google Fi data rates. About 10-15x higher, it looks like. :/ Around $100-150/GB, depending on the pass length, e.g. 100MB usable in 24 hours for $15, or 500MB usable in 2 weeks for $50.

Ouch. I was completely misremembering the cost on the international data passes. I thought it was about $30/GB, but I have no idea where that came from.

I suppose it's still better than Google - the rate limited data is still free, as opposed to paying full price for it, and nothing forces you to buy the full throughput data passes.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#604

Post by pbiggar »

inglor wrote: post #334
grecy wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, and I always figured that's why they built Chrome. They needed the other browsers to step up their game, especially js performance so they could offer the kinds of web applications they wanted to.

The reason they built Chrome isn't just that - google pays/paid other browser vendors __hundreds of millions of dollars__ to be the default search providers ($300M to Mozilla per year for a while). Owning the web browser gives them tremendous power and saves them money.

I remember reading that they spent $100m on advertising chrome in one quarter, just in the UK. So I don't think $300m/yr really matters that much. I think with Chrome they were far more concerned about the risk of losing the default position for searches in Firefox (correctly, as it turned out!)

Re: Project Fi by Google

#605

Post by bougiefever »

cbhl wrote: post #253
tomhschmidt wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This plan actually makes no sense. Overage charges are the same rate ($10 / GB), so why am I buying a "plan" at all? Why don't they just charge $10 * x gigs / month instead of all this buying / refunding business?

Ting Mobile ( https://ting.com/rates ) uses this exact pricing model (1.5 cents per megabyte) above and beyond 2 GB of usage.

Been using Ting for a while now. When you use a lot of data in a month, you definitely pay more. One month I used 10 GB of data, and my bill was $200. It's still less than when I had a contract, but I don't get phone upgrades unless I go buy a new phone.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#606

Post by dm2 »

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…

Data and density is an issue in the US.

Compare the size of South Korea, and the size of the US, that's why it's easier to blanket South Korea with data networks.

Google is offering ways to more seamlessly switch WiFi networks and make using a public trusted WiFi instantly.

The fact is that in the US there are a lot of coverage gaps and places where a specific type of service has very bad coverage (2G or 3G). Without cell data Google Maps won't work (1 year ago, might be better now).

We don't know if it will be useful yet, it might be great, it might be nothing special.

They are also offering financing on a Nexus 6, I haven't done the math to see if that's worth it (doubt it), but they'll probably be making a good amount of money off of that.

Most importantly it will put pressure on Verizon and ATT to lower prices and improve the value of the service, just like Google Fiber does it areas it is available in.

Re: Project Fi by Google

#607

Post by martin_bech »

_delirium wrote: post #588
martin_bech wrote: post #556

Just want to hasle you guys with danish pricing For about $28 a month i Get ALL this: 4 hours talk time 5GB 4g data Unlimited text And these services are included FREE HBO Nordic (Hbo NOW) Telmore Music (Think Spotify) TV2 Play (Think mini mini HULU) C More PLAY (More streaming) Mofibo (Netflix for ebooks) Min Bio (Netflix for kidshows) politiken (Newspaper) Ekstra Bladet Plus (Newspaper) Euroman (Magazine think GQ)…

If you never leave the country, mobile prices in Denmark are pretty good. But it's a small country so not very hard to cross a border, e.g. Malmö is only a 30-minute train ride from Copenhagen, so I find myself there often. And for that usage, the Danish providers' prices are quite bad. For example the one you linked, Telmore, charges a ridiculous 1,86 kr per megabyte (i.e. €250/GB) for roaming data in Sweden. I woul…

You Could Choose 3 with 3 Like Home. The plan "FIN TIL DE FLESTE" is unlimited calls, text, Free roaming in 19-20 countries incl. sweeden and 5gb data. its 25USD or 170kr a month and it includes free call roaming, which google fi dosen't. Same plan on google fi is 70USD. https://www.3.dk/abonnementer/mobil/

Re: Project Fi by Google

#608

Post by mcpherrinm »

tertius wrote: post #538
mcpherrinm wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans If you scroll down, there's: $30 per month — Unlimited web and text with 100 minutes talk 100 minutes talk | Unlimited text | First 5GB at up to 4G speeds I'm considering switch from that plan to Google Fi for Canada data.

No tethering with that plan.

If you install the T-mobile app which lets you know your monthly usage, it claims I have 100 megabytes of tethering data. I rather quickly uninstalled it since it's a pain, but some limited tethering does seem to work for me -- I've only used it occasionally to SSH/mosh, but after a while it does an http redirect to a "No tethering for you!" screen; I assume after that 100mb cap is reached (though I haven't checked)
Post reply on HN