4 ms·

Can you expand on your experience? Is there just not enough coverage or is it something else that makes it mediocre? Where are you located? I was thinking of sw

by kevinnk 10y ago

Can you expand on your experience? Is there just not enough coverage or is it something else that makes it mediocre? Where are you located? I was thinking of switching from Verizon (bay area) and would be interested to hear from someone who's already using it.

mmanfrin 10y ago
As someone from the bay area who has also had a mediocre experience, I can maybe answer: Speeds have been fine, but there are areas where it'll show full bars but provide no data (like in BART stations, my hunch is that those use femtocells that don't handle FI users properly). Additionally, occasionally it'll swap networks (I think, goes from LTE/HSPA/3G) and the 'swaps' have like 30 second switchover times. Then there's the annoying app that tries to connect you to open wifi networks, but usually connects you to something that requires login which means your data just breaks (it's an app you can turn off, just an annoying experience). The price isn't actually competitive, Cricket would be cheaper for the amount I use (~3GB). Also, the benefits of being on multiple networks don't really matter in urban/urbanish areas, since TMo/Sprint both are trying to reach the same dense areas -- and despite having two networks, both lack significantly outside major urban areas. For instance, I lose coverage on the drive from the Bay Area to Sacramento. But the worst is shortcodes and SMSes -- some weird configuration at FI meant that no shortcode texts came or went. I got error messages when I tried to use Magic (the texting startup). I never received 2FA texts while logging to to my bank or to github. I contacted support and they told me it was because those services used an http gateway, and that Fi just did not support that. I later found out that the support person was just wrong, and I escalated up support to a tech who 'reset' specific shortcodes on my account, which means I now can use 2FA for my banks/github, but I had to specifically find the shortcodes they used to get them whitelisted.
- fakename 10y ago
  I'm on a prepaid t mobile plan, and I also notice data not working on Bart, despite full LTE bars
- throwaya 10y ago
  I've had a little bit of a different experience (not in CA but still southwest) Regarding price: I don't use my 3GB, usually under 1GB due to Wifi at home/work/public transport so project fi is nice because it takes the amount I didn't use and refunds me at $10/GB for the next bill. I get sms's from shortcodes fine and haven't had any issues but maybe its because of the companies (apple, amazon, google, github) are whitelisted from other peoples bug reports. I haven't run into the auto public wifi-connect issue that much, it seems to work well for public transport and seems to fallback to lte when a login screen is required, but maybe I just haven't experienced as many login page wifi networks. I think I would go with tmobile if I had multiple people on my bill though because you get discounts for that which isn't there for fi.
- jdavis703 10y ago
  Data service is great, voice is terrible, at least in my experience in the Bay Area. I can even use my phone under the Transbay Tube (which I couldn't when I had AT&T). I also have problems with shortcodes taking forever to arrive (but they usually do show up). Voice however is horrible. All kinds of fade outs and drops happen when talking for more than a few minutes. Overall though I'm way happier with them than I was with AT&T.
atwebb 10y ago
Another anecdotal piece of evidence, my wife switched to Fi from ATT, I stayed on ATT. It's extremely common for my calls not to register on her phone, it just rings through to voicemail and she gets nothing showing on her Nexus. We've also had issues where text messages were delayed by hours, with no indication that it didn't go through. It's cheap, but I guess you get what you pay for, we're in a major metro area.

by kevinnk 10y ago

mmanfrin 10y ago

As someone from the bay area who has also had a mediocre experience, I can maybe answer: Speeds have been fine, but there are areas where it'll show full bars but provide no data (like in BART stations, my hunch is that those use femtocells that don't handle FI users properly). Additionally, occasionally it'll swap networks (I think, goes from LTE/HSPA/3G) and the 'swaps' have like 30 second switchover times. Then there's the annoying app that tries to connect you to open wifi networks, but usually connects you to something that requires login which means your data just breaks (it's an app you can turn off, just an annoying experience). The price isn't actually competitive, Cricket would be cheaper for the amount I use (~3GB). Also, the benefits of being on multiple networks don't really matter in urban/urbanish areas, since TMo/Sprint both are trying to reach the same dense areas -- and despite having two networks, both lack significantly outside major urban areas. For instance, I lose coverage on the drive from the Bay Area to Sacramento. But the worst is shortcodes and SMSes -- some weird configuration at FI meant that no shortcode texts came or went. I got error messages when I tried to use Magic (the texting startup). I never received 2FA texts while logging to to my bank or to github. I contacted support and they told me it was because those services used an http gateway, and that Fi just did not support that. I later found out that the support person was just wrong, and I escalated up support to a tech who 'reset' specific shortcodes on my account, which means I now can use 2FA for my banks/github, but I had to specifically find the shortcodes they used to get them whitelisted.

fakename 10y ago
I'm on a prepaid t mobile plan, and I also notice data not working on Bart, despite full LTE bars
throwaya 10y ago
I've had a little bit of a different experience (not in CA but still southwest) Regarding price: I don't use my 3GB, usually under 1GB due to Wifi at home/work/public transport so project fi is nice because it takes the amount I didn't use and refunds me at $10/GB for the next bill. I get sms's from shortcodes fine and haven't had any issues but maybe its because of the companies (apple, amazon, google, github) are whitelisted from other peoples bug reports. I haven't run into the auto public wifi-connect issue that much, it seems to work well for public transport and seems to fallback to lte when a login screen is required, but maybe I just haven't experienced as many login page wifi networks. I think I would go with tmobile if I had multiple people on my bill though because you get discounts for that which isn't there for fi.
jdavis703 10y ago
Data service is great, voice is terrible, at least in my experience in the Bay Area. I can even use my phone under the Transbay Tube (which I couldn't when I had AT&T). I also have problems with shortcodes taking forever to arrive (but they usually do show up). Voice however is horrible. All kinds of fade outs and drops happen when talking for more than a few minutes. Overall though I'm way happier with them than I was with AT&T.

atwebb 10y ago

Another anecdotal piece of evidence, my wife switched to Fi from ATT, I stayed on ATT. It's extremely common for my calls not to register on her phone, it just rings through to voicemail and she gets nothing showing on her Nexus. We've also had issues where text messages were delayed by hours, with no indication that it didn't go through. It's cheap, but I guess you get what you pay for, we're in a major metro area.