Project Fi Is Now Google Fi • Hacker News Board

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#171

Post by justryry » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 7:35 PM UTC

epapsiou wrote: post #66

I want to jump to Fi but is just super expensive for families. I have 4 lines. With Mint I can get unlimited talk, text and 2GB/per line for $15. So a family of 4 = $60. With Fi it would be $145. The difference is more than double. ATT offers 4 lines for $120 with 3GB per line. I remember when it was launched the price advantage was big. But since then the carriers came down and Fi did not (barring that $15 vs $20 pe…

Where do you see $15/mo for Mint? I see that as an intro price which then goes to $23 after the first 3 months.

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#172

Post by mlinsey » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 7:37 PM UTC

jayalpha wrote: post #145

Majestic121 wrote: post #9

Is 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$/GB a reasonable price in the US? It seems completely out of whack to me." I basically travel non-stop. And wherever I land, I receive a message. "Welcome to India we got you covered" "Welcome to Russia we got you covered" "Welcome to China we got you covered" "Welcome to France we got you covered" "Welcome to Uganda we got you covered" I can live with 10 US$/GB

It's really amazing. Only countries I've ever visited without Fi support were Iran and Ethiopia. Even in Iraq and Myanmar, Fi worked great. Your traffic also automatically goes through Fi's VPN, which unlike ExpressVPN and most other big commercial ones, has never in my experience been blocked by China.

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#173

Post by garysahota93 » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 7:37 PM UTC

Does anyone know if Fi still allows SMS via Google Hangouts?

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#174

Post by beckler » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 7:52 PM UTC

sharno wrote: post #93

beckler wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I guess it depends on how many people you add to your family plan. The more people you add the cheaper it gets

Yeah, it's cheaper per person, but the total cost still rises no matter how many people you add.

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#175

Post by skykooler » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 8:00 PM UTC

morley wrote: post #35

skykooler wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, that's amazing. Here in the US, I have 5 GB / "unlimited" low-speed data, for $70/month.

FWIW I have a T-Mobile prepaid plan, and it's 10GB for $50/month. (Obviously T-Mobile's coverage is not as good as, say, Verizon's.)

wait, what? I have T-mobile as well, and they told me that was the cheapest plan they offered. What is your plan called?

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#176

Post by desireco42 » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 8:09 PM UTC

alexharrisnyc wrote: post #40

Majestic121 wrote: post #9

Is 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

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.

I can second this. Our family plan is 60-75 and we are really not trying to save.

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#177

Post by toast0 » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 8:12 PM UTC

I love the promise of automatic carrier switching, but the reality is somewhat lacking -- you need special firmware, and anyway T-Mobile and Sprint seem to be merging.

I would love to consider a MVNO that actually supported roaming across carriers, using the normal stuff that's in phones already, as long as they had a reasonable data plan with some measured amount of high speed data, and unmetered low speed after that. I could live with always low speed data too, I just want better coverage than I can get with a single network.

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#178

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 8:15 PM UTC

jogjayr wrote: post #68

alexharrisnyc wrote: post #40

Earlier 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.

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.

> A T-mobile family plan with unlimited data (throttled after 2GB) comes out to ~$25/month.

This may be a legacy plan; the only thing they seem to currently offer is $40/line/month for 4 lines ($70/month for one), but throttled at 50GB/month (not clear if this is by line or account), not 2GB/month.

It's a little cheaper than Fi list price at the level Bill Protection (essentially, unlimited with 15GB/line throttling threshold) kicks in ($160/4 lines with TMo vs $205 for Fi). But Fi does refund if you use less than 14 GB total, which may reduce the effective price depending on usage pattern.

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#179

Post by desireco42 » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 8:19 PM UTC

I on on Fi and I love it.

Even just for US, coverage is great and rarely you will have any issues with reception.

When you travel internationally, it is fantastic experience and often you get fantastic speeds. My experience is with Europe and it was great.

While it might sound that it can be expensive, overall you really have great experience and it adjusts to your usage. It is transparent and easy to look how much you used.

The only thing that I would love to have (and not excessively pay for it) would be some kind of deal on hotspot access. If I could get a data card through them for lte device that I would getter better deal then $10/GB, I think that would be awesome.

Overall my experience mirrors other positive experiences.

Re: Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

#180

Post by Darkstryder » Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 8:22 PM UTC

fhrow4484 wrote: post #135

Darkstryder wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same question. I live in France, I'm subscribed to the most expensive operator (Orange), and even then I get unlimited call/text and 10 Gigabytes of data (in 4G) for less than 25 € per month (~roughly 28 dollars). These prices look like a joke to me, but it might be a US thing.

France prices are only due to Free mobile. Before they came up with their 20€ a month plan with unlimited everything, the other operators mobile plans had prices similar to the US, 60 to 80 € a month for unlimited everything. There was rumors of free mobile acquiring T-Mobile sometime last year, that would have been awesome for US consumers... That same 20€/mo plan gives 25GB of data to use abroad, which makes projec…

While you’re right that Free Mobile indeed had a big impact on prices in France, I’m pretty sure prices before Free were closer to 30-50 € euro a month and not 60-80.

With that said, data usage habits also did change between 2012 and now. I was happy with 500 Mo/month back in 2011. I would have trouble living with that now.