10$/GB is way too expensive Compare: - ATT unlocked pay as you go you get 8GB with ROLLOVER for 40$ a month (autopay) - TMobile for 40$ per month you get 10GB (not sure about rollover) This service seems very niche and only for international travellers.
Link to that AT&T plan? If you use small amounts of data Fi is cheaper. Most of my bills are under $30.
Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
121–130 of 221 posts
Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
#122Is 10$/GB a reasonable price in the US? It seems completely out of whack to me. For comparison, I have 20GB + unlimited call/texts for 10e/month, with optional 2e/GB recharges, and that's not even the cheapest available offer
It is a niche price. More expensive for high data users, but less expensive for low data users. Flexibility is really king here, if 9 months of the year you use As to "why is the US/Canada so expensive?" Urban areas subsidies rural cellular. The US is hugely populated on the East and West coasts and a cellphone network that only targeted those population centers would be as cheap or even cheaper than Europe. But most…
"Roaming" used to be a thing (I don't think I've seen domestic roaming in years). It essentially solved this problem, anything inside your typical geographic range was included at normal price, but you paid a hefty surcharge when roaming in rural areas. The problem was, you could accidentally or even intentionally travel outside of your network and get charged exorbitant roaming fees. It was really easy to accidentally rack up a huge bill and so many consumers were against it despite it being a "fair" solution, from an economic sense.
Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
#123Is 10$/GB a reasonable price in the US? It seems completely out of whack to me. For comparison, I have 20GB + unlimited call/texts for 10e/month, with optional 2e/GB recharges, and that's not even the cheapest available offer
>Is 10$/GB a reasonable price in the US?
They cap the $10/GB at 6, so it's effectively an unlimited talk/text/data plan for $80/month which is about average in the US.
Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
#124What are the downsides to using an MVNO such as Google Fi? As far as I'm aware, carriers are prone to de-prioritizing MVNO traffic to favor their own customers during periods of high congestion or emergency, but I don't know if all MVNO traffic is treated equally, or if certain MVNO carriers are de-prioritized because they pay less for "budget/excess capacity" network use.
The reliability of the least reliable carrier can bring down the reliability average. Just yesterday I could not make any outgoing calls because of a Sprint outage. Luckily the Signal Spy app makes it easy to switch to another carrier.
It's nice in a way since if a carrier is having an outage, you can manually switch, but I like for stuff to just work.
Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
#125Is 10$/GB a reasonable price in the US? It seems completely out of whack to me. For comparison, I have 20GB + unlimited call/texts for 10e/month, with optional 2e/GB recharges, and that's not even the cheapest available offer
It is a niche price. More expensive for high data users, but less expensive for low data users. Flexibility is really king here, if 9 months of the year you use As to "why is the US/Canada so expensive?" Urban areas subsidies rural cellular. The US is hugely populated on the East and West coasts and a cellphone network that only targeted those population centers would be as cheap or even cheaper than Europe. But most…
Thanks for the explanation, it indeed makes sense that coverage for much denser area like Western Europe is less expensive than for low density zones.
Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
#126If the non-supported phones are stuck on T-Mobile's network and don't support the seamless WiFi/Cell switching, what advantage is there to picking Fi over regular T-Mobile service? Price-wise Fi only wins if you use very little data.
Fi also wins over T-Mobile for international data, where they give you 4G instead of 3G. (Unless things have changed—when I had T-Mobile, you had to pay extra for international 4G)
It is still the case:
> When you travel abroad in 210+ countries and destinations you will have unlimited data at up to 128kbps [...]. If you frequently travel internationally and require a higher speed you can add T-Mobile One Plus™ and get up to 256kbps speeds abroad for $15/mo.
For full disclosure their "One Plus" offering does include other things:
- HD streaming.
- 20GB of 4G LTE mobile hotspot data.
- Unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi.
- Voicemail to Text.
So you can debate if Fi (international 4G) or T-Mobile w/One Plus (in-flight Wi-Fi) is superior for international travel.
Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
#127The company moved into a new office for a few months that had terrible cell service inside the building. Everyone had to do phone calls outside. But having Fi meant I could do everything on wi-fi. I think it's only a matter of time before features like this become ubiquitous. Do we really need cellular networks if something like Starlink beams high speed internet to every corner of the planet?
Starlink doesn't receive indoors and needs a pizza box sized antenna that is mounted on a stable platform.
Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
A T-mobile family plan with unlimited data (throttled after 2GB) comes out to ~$25/month. If that didn't exist, I'd look into Google Fi.
Sounds like you got a rare deal, everything I'm seeing online says it's $70-$40 per line depending on how many lines you have.
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Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
#129Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
You only play for what you use. This rewards anyone who mainly stays on wifi. My bill is roughly ~$35 a month with them while everyone I know has bills of 70-120. If you sign up for 2GB but use 1.1GB you only pay $11.
How on earth do people have mobile bills of $120 a month?
$70+/mo major provider "unlimited" plan + $50+/mo flagship phone