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Project Fi Is Now Google Fi

134 points by jeremydw 8y ago

lghh 8y ago
Google Fi is one of the best services that Google offers. I am trying to cut down on my Google dependence, but I don't see myself leaving Fi any time soon.
- michaelcampbell 8y ago
  I would have used it but I'm too attached to my "real" cell # and my GVoice # as separate numbers. I give them out to different people for different purposes.
  - Puer 8y ago
    Agreed. My Google Voice number is my default for handing out, and I reserve my real # for important things. I just wish you could block numbers using Google Voice.
  - Grazester 8y ago
    This ish right here. I saw a workaround being opening a new google account and using that for Fi
  - caymanjim 8y ago
    Switching your cell number to Google Fi doesn't preclude using Google Voice. They're unrelated services, and you can transfer your existing cell number to Fi.
    - prostoalex 8y ago
      > Switching your cell number to Google Fi doesn't preclude using Google Voice. https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6246240?hl=en https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6246240?hl=en "Whichever option you choose, once you activate Google Fi service on your phone, you’ll no longer have Google Voice on the Google Account you use with Google Fi. "
      - caymanjim 8y ago
        So it does. In fact, I had to make that choice when I signed up, but it took this reminder for the memory to surface. It's a stupid policy.
    - bagacrap 8y ago
      It does, actually. When you sign up for Fi, you have to use your Google Voice number or lose it. The only way to keep both would be to transfer your normal # to a VoIP service that forwards to your Voice (now Fi) number.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  I’m hopeful Apple’s push with eSIMs will allow for carriers and MVNOs to replicate Fi without the need to use Google.
  - what_ever 8y ago
    MNVOs have been around way before any of the eSIMs. I doubt physical sim is an issue.
- paulie_a 8y ago
  Plus they actually have quality, near instant customer support in my experience. I was shocked to be talking to a human so quickly.
- 50 8y ago
  Same. After moving all my email stuff onto Protonmail, I’m at the point where I may and would like to delete my entire Google account but it’s tied with Fi. I’ve been using Fi with my iPhone SE for close to three years now and it’s been a smooth ride.
- throwaway5250 8y ago
  It's the best service I've tried. But if Google decides to unperson you, your phone and all of your services might die instantly, never to return.
- Yhippa 8y ago
  I know this is not secure but being able to get texts without having my phone on has come in very handy.
pmilla1606 8y ago
This is compelling. I like the "pay as you go" model for data. I'm on an iPhone though and do enjoy visual voicemail - I wonder how much I would miss it? I also wonder what their beta status for iOS means and what their roadmap looks like.
- russdill 8y ago
  Fi has visual voicemail.
  - dcchambers 8y ago
    Not fully compatible with iPhones though. From the Google Fi Compatability checker (https://fi.google.com/compatibility https://fi.google.com/compatibility): "Voicemails won't show in the iOS visual voicemail app, but you'll get them as texts and can call to check them"
- kyrra 8y ago
  https://fi.google.com/compatibility https://fi.google.com/compatibility Check compatibility for Apple devices. the one that I notice immediately is that visual voicemail does not work, rather you get the messages texts.
karkisuni 8y ago
support for iPhones, but they can't jump networks to whichever is strongest. still nice to have official support.
Majestic121 8y ago
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
- skykooler 8y ago
  Man, that's amazing. Here in the US, I have 5 GB / "unlimited" low-speed data, for $70/month.
  - morley 8y ago
    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.)
    - russdill 8y ago
      Verizon prepaid is also not a bad deal. 8GB for $50/month. You can get $5/mo off if you auto pay and $15 off for multi-line. It's going to be very hard for Fi to be anything other than a niche provider unless they improve their data pricing.
    - skykooler 8y ago
      wait, what? I have T-mobile as well, and they told me that was the cheapest plan they offered. What is your plan called?
  - RutZap 8y ago
    Wow. I've got 8GB high speed 4G for £30, and I had the phone thrown in for free (Pixel 2)! Incredible how data varies so much in price from country to country.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- kevindqc 8y ago
  :( In Canada, I pay ~70$ for 6GB and unlimited calls/text
Someone1234 8y ago
Maybe bigger news is that they now officially support (in "beta") iPhones, Samsung's S line, and many other handsets. If you use a non-Fi native device it won't support Sprint (T-Mobile only) and fast switching from WiFi to cellular is disabled. It might have limitations but at least it is officially supported. People have already been using non-supported devices on Fi with these same limitations, it was just technically forbidden. Fi really is a great network, I doubt it would ever happen but I still hope that cost per GB might fall a little in time. I am pleased they added the data ceiling/unlimited after 6 GB.
- russdill 8y ago
  I'm guessing international support will also be limited.
  - Someone1234 8y ago
    That's a very good point. I'd imagine that it has to be since other handsets won't know which network to connect to in order to get Fi service.
  - pmlamotte 8y ago
    FWIW, I successfully used my unofficially supported Galaxy S9 in India. I did hit one snag, which is that I had bought the phone prior to going on the trip and hadn't installed the Project Fi app yet which meant I couldn't connect to any network after landing. Once I got on wifi and installed the app, I had 4G during my entire stay even in the most rural areas on overnight trains and no issues. Though had I bothered to go through the whole passport photo/scan 24hr submission process for Airtel it would have been way cheaper.
    - russdill 8y ago
      When I brought my Samsung S7 with a Fi data sim to Korea, it worked fine. When I brought it to Japan, nothing. My Nexus 5X worked great in both places.
_underflow_ 8y ago
Anyone looked into potential privacy implications? I understand my current carrier can potentially deduce things about my habits in the unlikely event that they were so inclined, but Alphabet et al seem to make a not insignificant portion of their profit from data gathering - that is, they don't need to be interesting in me particularly to sell data about me to those that are (whether for benign ad targeting or something more nefarious) I don't mean to seem paranoid, but with the current hype around Google's tumultuous relationship with "Don't be evil", I'm not sure I want them having that data on me too.
- jchw 8y ago
  There is a support document with information about some of the privacy and data collection. https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6181037 https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6181037
- glogla 8y ago
  > I understand my current carrier can potentially deduce things about my habits in the unlikely event that they were so inclined I worked for one carrier and part of our project was exporting (without names) location history to some external company which then provided segmentation into categories like "student", "stay at home", "working", "retired" based on how people move. The results were then reintegrated and used for marketing purposes. So they absolutely can and they absolutely do that.
- burkaman 8y ago
  They just introduced an optional (for now) "Enhanced Network" feature that sends all your data through a Google VPN.
- criddell 8y ago
  What carrier can you trust? All of them are also in the ad business. IIRC, it's why Verizon bought Yahoo last year. I think I trust Google more than any of traditional telecom carriers.
- heroprotagonist 8y ago
  The thing about Google is that they gather data and then sell an interface to that data, instead of selling the data outright. Pretty much every major carrier is already selling your location information outright to third party aggregators. They push the consent requirement to the third party aggregators under essentially what amounts to a pinky promise. I use T-Mobile and their Privacy settings did not prevent my data being sold to these services, at least around the time that vulnerability in of one of the 3rd party aggregators was discovered. Even before the exploit, demo of that system demonstrated that location of my phone was available using just the phone number. It was accurate to within a few block radius for me, using tower data (unblockable) rather than some GPS app on a phone that could potentially be prevented. The exploit demonstrated that it was available with no consent, and that consent requirement was just a form-fill for anyone the third party aggregator in turn sold the access to (so essentially they also pass on the consent requirement.. nobody actually enforces it anywhere). Google wasn't listed as one of the carriers selling location data at the time, but they do not really have their own network, it is essentially a piggyback on others, so I'm not sure how that would work. But I assume it would require their active support. I think that given the scrutiny about data that Google is usually given, and the incentive that drives them to act as a gatekeeper to data instead of an outright seller, they would be more reluctant to share this than the mobile carriers who already do so. Carriers are under less scrutiny, and users have limited alternatives. And if you're already using Google Maps, Google likely has more accurate location data on you already (correlating GPS and wifi instead of triangulation of cellular towers). Surprisingly, a Google Voice front to your cell phone offers more privacy than your cell phone alone, as it eliminates the need to share your mobile number directly and have it location tracked. It has made me think more about using Google Fi, to be honest.. Unfortunately I'd have to find some other public demo from one of these aggregators to see if they were sharing my location data like the other carriers. That last one from LocationSmart was removed from public view after the vulnerability was exposed, IIRC. Other discussions earlier this year: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17081684 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17081684 LocationSmart Leaked Location Data for All Major U.S. Carriers in Real Time https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17094213 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17094213 Some data just can't be sold without it inevitably being abused.
madspindel 8y ago
I am paying $10 for 2GB data, unlimited talk and text so this looks very expensive to me.
- bagacrap 8y ago
  In what country? For me switching to Fi saved money over Verizon although that was years ago and may be different now. Biggest draw is that you pay for what you use without stupid penalties, which is probably not true of your plan, and let's be honest 2GB/mo is not enough for anyone who leaves the house every day.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  What provider is this?
  - madspindel 8y ago
    It's Vimla (a swedish company with Telenor as parent company): https://vimla.se/ https://vimla.se/
    - driverdan 8y ago
      Mobile plans are expensive in the US.
iamgopal 8y ago
Not even in my wildest dream I have imagine that, India could have cheaper and faster internet than most of other countries. Now for 2 USD/month I'm using 3GB data per day at 4G speed.
- burkaman 8y ago
  How are you using 3GB a day?
  - mclehman 8y ago
    I've used more than 300GB in a day on my home internet connection, it doesn't seem outrageous to me that someone could use 1/100th of that on a mobile connection per day.
  - malshe 8y ago
    Not the OP. My parents in India don't have wired broadband. They only use mobile data. So when we do a FaceTime call, they easily consume about 1 GB (give or take a few MB as I didn't do any scientific measurement) in less than an hour.
  - iamgopal 8y ago
    Mostly Netflix or similar video apps.
- Throwawayzoink 8y ago
  It's not as simple as that. Owing to the larger populace that India has, the cost is being shared amongst consumers. The magic being that bandwidth is oversubscribed. As in say 20 users share the same resource, so if all 20 users are online they get only 5% of the promised bandwidth.
russdill 8y ago
I was really hoping they'd bring down the data rate as part of coming out of the "project" phase.
xutopia 8y ago
Canada has the most expensive plans in the first world and we don't have access to Google Fi yet. It's ridiculous how expensive it can be to have data here.
- giarc 8y ago
  I did the "estimate your bill" for Google Fi. For 6GB of data and unlimited talk and text it's $80USD or $106CAD per month. Compared to a Telus "Build Your Plan" with unlimited nationwide talk and text, plus 6GB is $90CAD or $67USD.
- gpm 8y ago
  Looks like it has international support for roaming at the same price though, I wonder if we (Canadians) could just use it anyways...
  - seized 8y ago
    You can. Just need a US address to get started. I use one in Washington that I have anyway for use as my billing address.
  - bpye 8y ago
    Not having a local number would be a bit of a pain.
  - wccrawford 8y ago
    They will eventually cut you off for being mostly-roaming.
    - mclehman 8y ago
      Are you sure about that? It's been almost a year since I got my mom set up with Fi in France, no issues yet.
      - wccrawford 8y ago
        There was a post on here (IIRC) about a month ago about someone who had family in the US, but his phone was always overseas. They killed the whole account.
gcburn2 8y ago
The biggest part of this undoubtedly has to be the ability to use phones outside the Nexus/Pixel lines. I've been a Project Fi customer for a few years now and love to wax poetic about it, but always have to add the caveat of "oh, but you can't use your current phone.". Which is a bigger deal when many of my friends are using iPhones and would never consider switching to Android.
ForHackernews 8y ago
For people interested, an alternative low-cost wifi-first carrier is Republic Wireless https://republicwireless.com/ https://republicwireless.com/
dcchambers 8y ago
If 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.
- kilovoltaire 8y ago
  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)
  - karanke 8y ago
    This is correct. Out of curiosity, have you required 4G while roaming? For maps, music and Uber 3G worked just fine for me in the UK and India.
    - atombender 8y ago
      I'm in Europe every year, and the T-Mobile 3G speeds are unbearably slow. I switch out my SIM for a (much cheaper!) EU SIM card after arriving. Note that with T-Mobile's roaming, you're still on the 4G/LTE network. It's just that they throttle you to 3G speeds. At least it's better than it was 2-3 years ago, when they actually limited your phone to EDGE (!).
  - Someone1234 8y ago
    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.
- bootlooped 8y ago
wnevets 8y ago
Fi is still way more expensive than t-mobile's prepaid plan at 10GB for $40 with free music streaming. At these price points it's not worth taking the risk of wifi not being available.
xrd 8y ago
I have a LG Sport Watch which has a Sim card. Anyone know if this is now supported? I've never been able to get it to work because you need to register the Sim card on a device that works with Fi and my current devices are sim-less. I've been on Fi for years and highly recommended it.
- danielsju6 8y ago
  Order a data-only sim. Works for my LG Watch no problem.
  - xrd 8y ago
    How did you register it? I was struggling with this, because I thought I needed a phone to register the SIM first (since you need to use the app, right?). Once you have it registered, you can swap the sim. Is that what you did, or a different method?
whitepoplar 8y ago
What 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.
- russdill 8y ago
  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.
- ppseafield 8y ago
  I had trouble laat year in a couple of remote places using Google Fi. They use Sprint and T-Mobile towers. I believe e.g. if you have a contract with Sprint, you can roam on Verizon's towers. However, I was visiting an area (central NC) and I had zero service the whole time, even in town. I switched back to Verizon. Google Fi also automatically connects you to known WiFi spots and sends your data over their VPN. The switching between antennas will kill your battery as well.
bubblethink 8y ago
So from memory, project-fi support on phones was all blobbed up in google play services. No way to use the features on AOSP. Now that they also support iphones and other android phones, has it been merged into AOSP and/or some standard ?
patagonia 8y ago
HN screams bloody murder when Google grabs location data without being clear about it. But I see nothing critical iin this thread (yet) of the idea of Google providing this service? So confused.
- Someone1234 8y ago
  It is an issue of active consent. If Google grabs location data without clear warnings, explicit opt-ins, or an easily ability to opt-out that is immoral. Contrast that with something like Fi where the fact it is a Google run cellphone network is front and center, so to sign up active consent is very much required. People just want a choice. Nobody is forcing anyone to use Fi, but people feel like they cannot escape Google's privacy violations in other areas.
  - patagonia 8y ago
    I disagree. Many consumers who will be interested in this service will not be educated enough about the relevant issues to give “active consent”. That’s like saying, FB has told consumers it is using their data in exchange for the use of FB, so it’s open season on that data set. As a community that understands many of the implications of Google having this relationship with consumers, in addition to those relationships made possible by Google’s other products, I would expect for HN readers to sound the alarm at least a little. If Google has your transit info (maps + Waymo) and your email, and your browsing (chrome + cookies), and your financial (purchased through brokers and banks + wallet), and knowledge about your relationships (email and photo analysis), and lord knows what else, you’re gonna sit here and tell me “if people sign up for it that’s their choice”..? Google is building a censored search engine for China. Think about that. Think about that. Seriously. Their effin mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. The same company that is censoring information, in direct conflict with their own mission statement, and thereby empowering authoritarian governments now has alllllll that data about you. No one can know what will happen when you give a corporation that much insight into and control of your life. No one can give active consent.
mrdoops 8y ago
The 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?
- russdill 8y ago
  Starlink doesn't receive indoors and needs a pizza box sized antenna that is mounted on a stable platform.
epapsiou 8y ago
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 per extra line thing) The only advantage I see is the use of 3 networks(for those who live in places with bad coverage).
- forgot-my-pw 8y ago
  Hope they will offer a family plan in the future. The roaming is definitely tempting...
  - forgot-my-pw 8y ago
    Actually, they have discounted rate for additional users: Does Google Fi offer plans for groups or families? Yes. If you’re new to Google Fi, you can set up a group plan during your checkout process. Just have the intended plan owner click “Join Fi” to get started. Just like an individual plan, each month you’ll pay $20 for unlimited talk and text, then add $15 for each additional person. Data costs the same at $10 for each GB used. If you’re already a part of Google Fi you can invite people to your plan here. You can have up to six people, including the group owner, in a group.
  - sjs382 8y ago
    They do and they have a pretty nice calculator, too: https://fi.google.com/about/plan/ https://fi.google.com/about/plan/ For 6 users, the max you will pay will be $275 (data is free after 18GB), minimum $95 (no data used). For 4 users, the max you will pay will be $205 (data is free after 14GB), minimum $65 (no data used). For 2 users, the max you will pay will be $135 (data is free after 10GB), minimum $35 (no data used).
- Someone1234 8y ago
  It simply isn't for high data usage no matter how you slice it. You're calculating the prices based on hitting the data ceiling on Fi every month, if you are hitting the ceiling that often then you shouldn't be on Fi. T-Mobile's family offering is likely better value for true unlimited. In general I agree Fi isn't great for families, because kids often consume a ton of data. It might be good for a spouses if both parties don't use much data.
boromi 8y ago
10$/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.
- driverdan 8y ago
  Link to that AT&T plan? If you use small amounts of data Fi is cheaper. Most of my bills are under $30.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
    https://www.att.com/prepaid/plans.html https://www.att.com/prepaid/plans.html
- karanke 8y ago
  You can currently get unlimited data for $40/month on T-Mobile if you can bring 4 lines.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
  It is nice for international travelers though. For ATT pay as you go, you get free Mexico and Canada traveling but they don't offer any reasonable rates outside of those two countries (it's all pay-per-minute/text/MB at exorbitant prices). Their postpaid plans have some slightly better options outside of the country but wouldn't be called great by any stretch of the means, in almost all cases you're better off just getting a local prepaid SIM.
- atombender 8y ago
  T-Mobile One is $70/mo with autopay for a single line. It goes down to $40/mo if you have 4 lines. T-Mobile One is actually unlimited, though they say they will deprioritize your traffic if you use a lot of data. This is still better than some other vendors that start to actually throttle you down to 3G speeds. Also, T-Mobile's tethering is not throttled, unlike some other vendors (e.g. Verizon's "gounlimited"). Last I checked you could still get their cheaper "Simple Choice" prepaid plan for $40/mo, but that's very limited data-wise, something like 2 or 3GB.
whitepoplar 8y ago
It would be great if Apple could create their own version of Google Fi, optimized for iOS devices and, more importantly, privacy. This would also be cool for international use, where using my phone feels like playing Russian roulette. Is my Wi-Fi call billed at normal data rate? Am I being billed at $1/minute? Is my call even going over Wi-Fi? If Apple controlled the network, they could just say "This is a free call" on the call screen, or "This call is $0.20/minute." And even better, with flaky international Wi-Fi, the call could be locked into the initial rate even if it hops over to a cell tower if/when the Wi-Fi fails. All I want in a carrier is rock-solid predictability and reliability and for me to never think about it ever again. Google Fi comes really close to this, but it's still not ideal for those using Apple products.
caymanjim 8y ago
If you're happy with your phone service in the US, and you're a moderate or large data user, Google Fi is not likely to be a great deal for you. It's in the price ballpark of other carriers, but it's not cheap. For me, the four major wins for Fi are: 1. It's multi-carrier. It seamlessly switches to whichever carrier has the best signal. It also seamlessly switches to VoIP over wifi when in range. You can start a phone call on your work wifi, walk to a coffee shop, and use their wifi, walk home and use your wifi, and while you're walking, it'll hop between cell carriers to get the best signal. While my scenario is a bit artificial, it's impressive. The big win here is that you get a strong signal in places where other carriers fail. I had Sprint in Manhattan, and all you need to do to lose signal is walk next to a tall building. I'd get 5 bars outside my apartment and 2 bars inside. With Fi, I have a great signal everywhere. 2. You only pay for what you use. I'm not a huge data user. I never stream media on my phone, and my day-to-day use consists of reading the news and some light Facebook browsing. If you don't use any data, your bill is $20/month. A typical bill for me is about $40/mo, which is about half the price I'd pay with any other major carrier. Sometimes I need more, and having the option is nice. When I was commuting a lot, I'd tether, and use 6-12GB/mo. Since the 6-15GB window is "free", the bill would max out at $80/mo, which is comparable to other providers for similar usage. But instead of paying $80/mo all the time, I only pay that much when I need it. Once, I went over 15GB. The throttling was terribly (256KB), but I was also able to opt-in and pay $10/GB beyond that. I went up to 20GB full-bandwidth for the month, and my bill was $130, but required no commitment. Other providers don't even offer the option. 3. There's no commitment. If you own the phone, it's pay-as-you-go. You don't have to commit to a full-year plan. 4. The data rate applies internationally. I travel enough that paying $10/mo for data in other countries is a godsend. I used to have to buy local SIMs and pay outrageous rates for data in other countries.
- briffle 8y ago
  I get that its multi-carrier, but two of its 3 carriers are merging, and the 3rd carrier isn't nationwide (they have great coverage in some areas, and use 'partners' in other regions).. Really curious how the T-Mobile Sprint Merger will affect Fi.
karanke 8y ago
How does Fi work with family plans? Currently paying $140 on T-Mobile for 4 unlimited lines with unlimited international 3G roaming (good enough for maps and music) and other misc. benefits (half-off phones, free Netflix, unlimited in-flight wi-fi).
bkanber 8y ago
After having service with Verizon, T-Mobile, and Google Fi, I can say I like Fi the best. I'm almost always on wifi, and when I'm not it's because I'm traveling. My monthly bill is about half what it was when I was on T-Mobile, and the coverage is much better (plus voice+SMS over wifi). It's definitely not for people who rely on LTE all day long, but if you're mostly going from home to work under a wifi cloud all day, with some traveling overseas a few times a year, it's perfect.
exabrial 8y ago
I worry about Google spying on me, but I'm extremely pleased with Fi. It's followed me all over the world from the UK, France, Germany, China, and Singapore, as well as all over the USA in major cities and deserted areas as well. Annnnd... it's really easy to integrate with Jolly Roger Phone Company which makes for some good laughs.
dangoor 8y ago
It's cool to see this service graduate, and the addition of limited iPhone support. That said, this year I discovered Xfinity Mobile. We already have Comcast internet at home (which has actually worked quite well for us, despite Comcast's horrible customer service reputation). Xfinity Mobile costs nothing for talk/text for up to 5 phones + $12 per GB of shared data (or $45 per "unlimited" data per phones). After taxes, my bill has been hovering between $14-26, because I don't use a ton of data on the go. Oh, and they use Verizon as the underlying carrier, so the coverage has been good.
jdeibele 8y ago
My wife and I are on Xfinity Mobile, which uses Verizon towers. We're on the $12/gig plan, while texts and minutes are free. Our 3 kids are on Tello, which resells Sprint. They're on the 100 minutes, unlimited texts, 1GB of data plan for $10/month. With taxes, it's almost exactly $11. Verizon seems to have coverage in remote areas where Sprint doesn't, though sometimes it's been true that Sprint has service and Verizon doesn't. It might be that if we were using Verizon service from Verizon itself instead of through a reseller we'd have service. Given that we pay about $65/month for 5 lines of service, which is what we were paying for 1 line from Verizon, I'm not anxious to test that out. I've shown the kids how to adjust their phones to just use WiFi for app updates, etc. They're young enough that they're at school or home, not driving themselves around. Additional GB are $4/month on Tello. They get 2G speed if they hit their 1GB limit, which means they get iMessages, email, etc.
ryanmercer 8y ago
And it's still a steaming pile. I've been a Fi user since September of 2015 and I've had annoyance after annoyance. - MMS and SMS would send and the receipients would get multiple copies. In one instance someone got more than a dozen instances of a photo I sent - MMS and SMS would fail to show up regularly for a month - SMS showed up a full week after the fact in one instance - Visual voicemail failed to retrieve messages for the better part of a year once - It took them way too long to get 2fa SMS messages to actually deliver - People have had multiple years of issues with their phone not ringing, only ringing on hangouts on their computer, not hearing a ring when they call someone - People have had multiple years of people regularly being unable to hear them, people saying they sound extremely quiet, being unable to hear people, having awesome signal strength but breaking up terribly for the other person - Piss poor network switching over multiple years, for a solid 2 years you'd have edge and it wouldn't switch to the other one then two networks that had great signal 4g where you were - Unexplained mystery data usage for multiple people over multiple years - Terrible customer service for many when something is wrong - In multiple instances they allowed existing users numbers to be taken by other people - Countless instances of the 'hidden' number showing up when texting or calling someone Etc etc. The ONLY reason I'm still a subscriber is they still owe me $336.63 in referral credit from a contest over a year ago, I basically only pay taxes for my service.
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  Oh look, I'm being downvoted. Downvote away, you're either Google employees or dense. You are more than welcome to head over to /r/projectfi and see these problems posted day after day by hundreds (if not thousands of users) going back 3 years as well as all sorts of billing issues, number porting issues, trade-in issues, referral issues, warranty issues etc etc. Similarly you can find issue after issue on their official forum. They even screwed the pooch telling customers about the change today by sending the email to customers more than an hour after tweeting it and in the past when there have been critical issues with service, as in service down for thousands of subscribers, they've posted it on their obscure forum instead of emailing customers.
otterpro 8y ago
I use Tracfone because it is cheaper if I don't need unlimited talk/text. I probably average around $10/month on my Tracfone for everything, as my data usage is very light, and I only use about 100 minutes of voice. I'd use Google Fi when I'm traveling overseas, since it includes roaming, which is a killer feature.
deleted 8y ago
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carlosvega 8y ago
In Spain I pay 19€ for unlimited calls (no SMS included), and 23GB of data and for 2€ more I can add another person to share my data plan.
- satysin 8y ago
  Yeah I just looked at the prices and was shocked at how expensive they are! I am in France and my 50GB mobile data (unlimited calls and texts) is part of my €55/month home internet package (which includes 1Gbit fiber internet, land line and a TV box + package not that I care for that). America has crazy expensive prices for mobile plans!
yc-kraln 8y ago
And Google launches another US-centric product without even thinking about the rest of the world. The lesson, of course, is that the rest of the world needs to get used to the idea that Google (and other bay area companies) are not designing for them, or consider them, and they should rather take care for themselves. What is the Google Fi of France? Of Germany? Of India?
cmcginty 8y ago
I wouldn't touch this considering how quickly Google shuts things down. Maybe if it's still available in 5 to 10 years.
garysahota93 8y ago
Does anyone know if Fi still allows SMS via Google Hangouts?
- danielsju6 8y ago
  It does.
  - garysahota93 8y ago
    Sweet, Thanks!
toast0 8y ago
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.
desireco42 8y ago
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.
lambda_lover 8y ago
$200 credit if you bring your own device today? That's it, I guess I'll try a 6-month free trial of Fi...
novaleaf 8y ago
If this kind of ala-carte plan is interesting to you, check out ting. very similar but lower price. works with cdma or gsm phones. https://ting.com https://ting.com
AcerbicZero 8y ago
I've been on Fi for ~2 years now, and while the network kinda sucks sometiems, and $10/GB can be expensive, keeping the Google Voice spam filtering/call filtering, and doing all my texting via Hangouts is amazing. I'm sure sooner or later Google will fuck it up, and I'd honestly much rather have an iPhone these days, but for my current setup, its perfect.
- OafTobark 8y ago
  You can use Google Voice/Hangout for all their features without Fi So is there an advantage to paying for Fi otherwise that I am missing? The cost for the amount of data I use would far outweigh any benefits I can see here unless there are features you get with Fi for Voice/Hangout that I don’t know about.
  - AcerbicZero 8y ago
    With Fi, you can still use hangouts for normal SMS, which they removed for non-Fi users last year (around the same time they removed merged conversations). Right now, all my SMS/MMS go through hangouts, and then down to whatever devices I want, which is great since I can use hangouts on my work phone, from the computer, etc, and all my texts still come and go from the same phone number.
hi41 8y ago
Regarding the exceeding 15gb and throttling... If it is a family plan, does this affect just the user who exceeded the 15gb limit or does data get throttled for all users in the plan.
reustle 8y ago
Fantastic! Can I use it with my Google Apps account yet? I've been forced to have my Fi account tied with my old gmail account for years, and I can't connect that account with my phone without getting tons of garbage emails.
falcor84 8y ago
Is this just for Americans? The site doesn't seem to mention anything at all about availability, but the signup form just had "state" and not "country".

134 points by jeremydw 8y ago

lghh 8y ago

Google Fi is one of the best services that Google offers. I am trying to cut down on my Google dependence, but I don't see myself leaving Fi any time soon.

michaelcampbell 8y ago
I would have used it but I'm too attached to my "real" cell # and my GVoice # as separate numbers. I give them out to different people for different purposes.
- Puer 8y ago
  Agreed. My Google Voice number is my default for handing out, and I reserve my real # for important things. I just wish you could block numbers using Google Voice.
- Grazester 8y ago
  This ish right here. I saw a workaround being opening a new google account and using that for Fi
- caymanjim 8y ago
  Switching your cell number to Google Fi doesn't preclude using Google Voice. They're unrelated services, and you can transfer your existing cell number to Fi.
  - prostoalex 8y ago
    > Switching your cell number to Google Fi doesn't preclude using Google Voice. https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6246240?hl=en https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6246240?hl=en "Whichever option you choose, once you activate Google Fi service on your phone, you’ll no longer have Google Voice on the Google Account you use with Google Fi. "
    - caymanjim 8y ago
      So it does. In fact, I had to make that choice when I signed up, but it took this reminder for the memory to surface. It's a stupid policy.
  - bagacrap 8y ago
    It does, actually. When you sign up for Fi, you have to use your Google Voice number or lose it. The only way to keep both would be to transfer your normal # to a VoIP service that forwards to your Voice (now Fi) number.
toomuchtodo 8y ago
I’m hopeful Apple’s push with eSIMs will allow for carriers and MVNOs to replicate Fi without the need to use Google.
- what_ever 8y ago
  MNVOs have been around way before any of the eSIMs. I doubt physical sim is an issue.
paulie_a 8y ago
Plus they actually have quality, near instant customer support in my experience. I was shocked to be talking to a human so quickly.
50 8y ago
Same. After moving all my email stuff onto Protonmail, I’m at the point where I may and would like to delete my entire Google account but it’s tied with Fi. I’ve been using Fi with my iPhone SE for close to three years now and it’s been a smooth ride.
throwaway5250 8y ago
It's the best service I've tried. But if Google decides to unperson you, your phone and all of your services might die instantly, never to return.
Yhippa 8y ago
I know this is not secure but being able to get texts without having my phone on has come in very handy.

pmilla1606 8y ago

This is compelling. I like the "pay as you go" model for data. I'm on an iPhone though and do enjoy visual voicemail - I wonder how much I would miss it? I also wonder what their beta status for iOS means and what their roadmap looks like.

russdill 8y ago
Fi has visual voicemail.
- dcchambers 8y ago
  Not fully compatible with iPhones though. From the Google Fi Compatability checker (https://fi.google.com/compatibility https://fi.google.com/compatibility): "Voicemails won't show in the iOS visual voicemail app, but you'll get them as texts and can call to check them"
kyrra 8y ago
https://fi.google.com/compatibility https://fi.google.com/compatibility Check compatibility for Apple devices. the one that I notice immediately is that visual voicemail does not work, rather you get the messages texts.

karkisuni 8y ago

support for iPhones, but they can't jump networks to whichever is strongest. still nice to have official support.

Majestic121 8y ago

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

skykooler 8y ago
Man, that's amazing. Here in the US, I have 5 GB / "unlimited" low-speed data, for $70/month.
- morley 8y ago
  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.)
  - russdill 8y ago
    Verizon prepaid is also not a bad deal. 8GB for $50/month. You can get $5/mo off if you auto pay and $15 off for multi-line. It's going to be very hard for Fi to be anything other than a niche provider unless they improve their data pricing.
  - skykooler 8y ago
    wait, what? I have T-mobile as well, and they told me that was the cheapest plan they offered. What is your plan called?
- RutZap 8y ago
  Wow. I've got 8GB high speed 4G for £30, and I had the phone thrown in for free (Pixel 2)! Incredible how data varies so much in price from country to country.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
kevindqc 8y ago
:( In Canada, I pay ~70$ for 6GB and unlimited calls/text

Someone1234 8y ago

Maybe bigger news is that they now officially support (in "beta") iPhones, Samsung's S line, and many other handsets. If you use a non-Fi native device it won't support Sprint (T-Mobile only) and fast switching from WiFi to cellular is disabled. It might have limitations but at least it is officially supported. People have already been using non-supported devices on Fi with these same limitations, it was just technically forbidden. Fi really is a great network, I doubt it would ever happen but I still hope that cost per GB might fall a little in time. I am pleased they added the data ceiling/unlimited after 6 GB.

russdill 8y ago
I'm guessing international support will also be limited.
- Someone1234 8y ago
  That's a very good point. I'd imagine that it has to be since other handsets won't know which network to connect to in order to get Fi service.
- pmlamotte 8y ago
  FWIW, I successfully used my unofficially supported Galaxy S9 in India. I did hit one snag, which is that I had bought the phone prior to going on the trip and hadn't installed the Project Fi app yet which meant I couldn't connect to any network after landing. Once I got on wifi and installed the app, I had 4G during my entire stay even in the most rural areas on overnight trains and no issues. Though had I bothered to go through the whole passport photo/scan 24hr submission process for Airtel it would have been way cheaper.
  - russdill 8y ago
    When I brought my Samsung S7 with a Fi data sim to Korea, it worked fine. When I brought it to Japan, nothing. My Nexus 5X worked great in both places.

_underflow_ 8y ago

Anyone looked into potential privacy implications? I understand my current carrier can potentially deduce things about my habits in the unlikely event that they were so inclined, but Alphabet et al seem to make a not insignificant portion of their profit from data gathering - that is, they don't need to be interesting in me particularly to sell data about me to those that are (whether for benign ad targeting or something more nefarious) I don't mean to seem paranoid, but with the current hype around Google's tumultuous relationship with "Don't be evil", I'm not sure I want them having that data on me too.

jchw 8y ago
There is a support document with information about some of the privacy and data collection. https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6181037 https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6181037
glogla 8y ago
> I understand my current carrier can potentially deduce things about my habits in the unlikely event that they were so inclined I worked for one carrier and part of our project was exporting (without names) location history to some external company which then provided segmentation into categories like "student", "stay at home", "working", "retired" based on how people move. The results were then reintegrated and used for marketing purposes. So they absolutely can and they absolutely do that.
burkaman 8y ago
They just introduced an optional (for now) "Enhanced Network" feature that sends all your data through a Google VPN.
criddell 8y ago
What carrier can you trust? All of them are also in the ad business. IIRC, it's why Verizon bought Yahoo last year. I think I trust Google more than any of traditional telecom carriers.
heroprotagonist 8y ago
The thing about Google is that they gather data and then sell an interface to that data, instead of selling the data outright. Pretty much every major carrier is already selling your location information outright to third party aggregators. They push the consent requirement to the third party aggregators under essentially what amounts to a pinky promise. I use T-Mobile and their Privacy settings did not prevent my data being sold to these services, at least around the time that vulnerability in of one of the 3rd party aggregators was discovered. Even before the exploit, demo of that system demonstrated that location of my phone was available using just the phone number. It was accurate to within a few block radius for me, using tower data (unblockable) rather than some GPS app on a phone that could potentially be prevented. The exploit demonstrated that it was available with no consent, and that consent requirement was just a form-fill for anyone the third party aggregator in turn sold the access to (so essentially they also pass on the consent requirement.. nobody actually enforces it anywhere). Google wasn't listed as one of the carriers selling location data at the time, but they do not really have their own network, it is essentially a piggyback on others, so I'm not sure how that would work. But I assume it would require their active support. I think that given the scrutiny about data that Google is usually given, and the incentive that drives them to act as a gatekeeper to data instead of an outright seller, they would be more reluctant to share this than the mobile carriers who already do so. Carriers are under less scrutiny, and users have limited alternatives. And if you're already using Google Maps, Google likely has more accurate location data on you already (correlating GPS and wifi instead of triangulation of cellular towers). Surprisingly, a Google Voice front to your cell phone offers more privacy than your cell phone alone, as it eliminates the need to share your mobile number directly and have it location tracked. It has made me think more about using Google Fi, to be honest.. Unfortunately I'd have to find some other public demo from one of these aggregators to see if they were sharing my location data like the other carriers. That last one from LocationSmart was removed from public view after the vulnerability was exposed, IIRC. Other discussions earlier this year: US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17081684 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17081684 LocationSmart Leaked Location Data for All Major U.S. Carriers in Real Time https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17094213 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17094213 Some data just can't be sold without it inevitably being abused.

madspindel 8y ago

I am paying $10 for 2GB data, unlimited talk and text so this looks very expensive to me.

bagacrap 8y ago
In what country? For me switching to Fi saved money over Verizon although that was years ago and may be different now. Biggest draw is that you pay for what you use without stupid penalties, which is probably not true of your plan, and let's be honest 2GB/mo is not enough for anyone who leaves the house every day.
jessaustin 8y ago
What provider is this?
- madspindel 8y ago
  It's Vimla (a swedish company with Telenor as parent company): https://vimla.se/ https://vimla.se/
  - driverdan 8y ago
    Mobile plans are expensive in the US.

iamgopal 8y ago

Not even in my wildest dream I have imagine that, India could have cheaper and faster internet than most of other countries. Now for 2 USD/month I'm using 3GB data per day at 4G speed.

burkaman 8y ago
How are you using 3GB a day?
- mclehman 8y ago
  I've used more than 300GB in a day on my home internet connection, it doesn't seem outrageous to me that someone could use 1/100th of that on a mobile connection per day.
- malshe 8y ago
  Not the OP. My parents in India don't have wired broadband. They only use mobile data. So when we do a FaceTime call, they easily consume about 1 GB (give or take a few MB as I didn't do any scientific measurement) in less than an hour.
- iamgopal 8y ago
  Mostly Netflix or similar video apps.
Throwawayzoink 8y ago
It's not as simple as that. Owing to the larger populace that India has, the cost is being shared amongst consumers. The magic being that bandwidth is oversubscribed. As in say 20 users share the same resource, so if all 20 users are online they get only 5% of the promised bandwidth.

russdill 8y ago

I was really hoping they'd bring down the data rate as part of coming out of the "project" phase.

xutopia 8y ago

Canada has the most expensive plans in the first world and we don't have access to Google Fi yet. It's ridiculous how expensive it can be to have data here.

giarc 8y ago
I did the "estimate your bill" for Google Fi. For 6GB of data and unlimited talk and text it's $80USD or $106CAD per month. Compared to a Telus "Build Your Plan" with unlimited nationwide talk and text, plus 6GB is $90CAD or $67USD.
gpm 8y ago
Looks like it has international support for roaming at the same price though, I wonder if we (Canadians) could just use it anyways...
- seized 8y ago
  You can. Just need a US address to get started. I use one in Washington that I have anyway for use as my billing address.
- bpye 8y ago
  Not having a local number would be a bit of a pain.
- wccrawford 8y ago
  They will eventually cut you off for being mostly-roaming.
  - mclehman 8y ago
    Are you sure about that? It's been almost a year since I got my mom set up with Fi in France, no issues yet.
    - wccrawford 8y ago
      There was a post on here (IIRC) about a month ago about someone who had family in the US, but his phone was always overseas. They killed the whole account.

gcburn2 8y ago

The biggest part of this undoubtedly has to be the ability to use phones outside the Nexus/Pixel lines. I've been a Project Fi customer for a few years now and love to wax poetic about it, but always have to add the caveat of "oh, but you can't use your current phone.". Which is a bigger deal when many of my friends are using iPhones and would never consider switching to Android.

ForHackernews 8y ago

For people interested, an alternative low-cost wifi-first carrier is Republic Wireless https://republicwireless.com/ https://republicwireless.com/

dcchambers 8y ago

If 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.

kilovoltaire 8y ago
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)
- karanke 8y ago
  This is correct. Out of curiosity, have you required 4G while roaming? For maps, music and Uber 3G worked just fine for me in the UK and India.
  - atombender 8y ago
    I'm in Europe every year, and the T-Mobile 3G speeds are unbearably slow. I switch out my SIM for a (much cheaper!) EU SIM card after arriving. Note that with T-Mobile's roaming, you're still on the 4G/LTE network. It's just that they throttle you to 3G speeds. At least it's better than it was 2-3 years ago, when they actually limited your phone to EDGE (!).
- Someone1234 8y ago
  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.
bootlooped 8y ago

wnevets 8y ago

Fi is still way more expensive than t-mobile's prepaid plan at 10GB for $40 with free music streaming. At these price points it's not worth taking the risk of wifi not being available.

xrd 8y ago

I have a LG Sport Watch which has a Sim card. Anyone know if this is now supported? I've never been able to get it to work because you need to register the Sim card on a device that works with Fi and my current devices are sim-less. I've been on Fi for years and highly recommended it.

danielsju6 8y ago
Order a data-only sim. Works for my LG Watch no problem.
- xrd 8y ago
  How did you register it? I was struggling with this, because I thought I needed a phone to register the SIM first (since you need to use the app, right?). Once you have it registered, you can swap the sim. Is that what you did, or a different method?

whitepoplar 8y ago

What 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.

russdill 8y ago
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.
ppseafield 8y ago
I had trouble laat year in a couple of remote places using Google Fi. They use Sprint and T-Mobile towers. I believe e.g. if you have a contract with Sprint, you can roam on Verizon's towers. However, I was visiting an area (central NC) and I had zero service the whole time, even in town. I switched back to Verizon. Google Fi also automatically connects you to known WiFi spots and sends your data over their VPN. The switching between antennas will kill your battery as well.

bubblethink 8y ago

So from memory, project-fi support on phones was all blobbed up in google play services. No way to use the features on AOSP. Now that they also support iphones and other android phones, has it been merged into AOSP and/or some standard ?

patagonia 8y ago

HN screams bloody murder when Google grabs location data without being clear about it. But I see nothing critical iin this thread (yet) of the idea of Google providing this service? So confused.

Someone1234 8y ago
It is an issue of active consent. If Google grabs location data without clear warnings, explicit opt-ins, or an easily ability to opt-out that is immoral. Contrast that with something like Fi where the fact it is a Google run cellphone network is front and center, so to sign up active consent is very much required. People just want a choice. Nobody is forcing anyone to use Fi, but people feel like they cannot escape Google's privacy violations in other areas.
- patagonia 8y ago
  I disagree. Many consumers who will be interested in this service will not be educated enough about the relevant issues to give “active consent”. That’s like saying, FB has told consumers it is using their data in exchange for the use of FB, so it’s open season on that data set. As a community that understands many of the implications of Google having this relationship with consumers, in addition to those relationships made possible by Google’s other products, I would expect for HN readers to sound the alarm at least a little. If Google has your transit info (maps + Waymo) and your email, and your browsing (chrome + cookies), and your financial (purchased through brokers and banks + wallet), and knowledge about your relationships (email and photo analysis), and lord knows what else, you’re gonna sit here and tell me “if people sign up for it that’s their choice”..? Google is building a censored search engine for China. Think about that. Think about that. Seriously. Their effin mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. The same company that is censoring information, in direct conflict with their own mission statement, and thereby empowering authoritarian governments now has alllllll that data about you. No one can know what will happen when you give a corporation that much insight into and control of your life. No one can give active consent.

mrdoops 8y ago

The 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?

russdill 8y ago
Starlink doesn't receive indoors and needs a pizza box sized antenna that is mounted on a stable platform.

epapsiou 8y ago

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 per extra line thing) The only advantage I see is the use of 3 networks(for those who live in places with bad coverage).

forgot-my-pw 8y ago
Hope they will offer a family plan in the future. The roaming is definitely tempting...
- forgot-my-pw 8y ago
  Actually, they have discounted rate for additional users: Does Google Fi offer plans for groups or families? Yes. If you’re new to Google Fi, you can set up a group plan during your checkout process. Just have the intended plan owner click “Join Fi” to get started. Just like an individual plan, each month you’ll pay $20 for unlimited talk and text, then add $15 for each additional person. Data costs the same at $10 for each GB used. If you’re already a part of Google Fi you can invite people to your plan here. You can have up to six people, including the group owner, in a group.
- sjs382 8y ago
  They do and they have a pretty nice calculator, too: https://fi.google.com/about/plan/ https://fi.google.com/about/plan/ For 6 users, the max you will pay will be $275 (data is free after 18GB), minimum $95 (no data used). For 4 users, the max you will pay will be $205 (data is free after 14GB), minimum $65 (no data used). For 2 users, the max you will pay will be $135 (data is free after 10GB), minimum $35 (no data used).
Someone1234 8y ago
It simply isn't for high data usage no matter how you slice it. You're calculating the prices based on hitting the data ceiling on Fi every month, if you are hitting the ceiling that often then you shouldn't be on Fi. T-Mobile's family offering is likely better value for true unlimited. In general I agree Fi isn't great for families, because kids often consume a ton of data. It might be good for a spouses if both parties don't use much data.

boromi 8y ago

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.

driverdan 8y ago
Link to that AT&T plan? If you use small amounts of data Fi is cheaper. Most of my bills are under $30.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
  https://www.att.com/prepaid/plans.html https://www.att.com/prepaid/plans.html
karanke 8y ago
You can currently get unlimited data for $40/month on T-Mobile if you can bring 4 lines.
SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
It is nice for international travelers though. For ATT pay as you go, you get free Mexico and Canada traveling but they don't offer any reasonable rates outside of those two countries (it's all pay-per-minute/text/MB at exorbitant prices). Their postpaid plans have some slightly better options outside of the country but wouldn't be called great by any stretch of the means, in almost all cases you're better off just getting a local prepaid SIM.
atombender 8y ago
T-Mobile One is $70/mo with autopay for a single line. It goes down to $40/mo if you have 4 lines. T-Mobile One is actually unlimited, though they say they will deprioritize your traffic if you use a lot of data. This is still better than some other vendors that start to actually throttle you down to 3G speeds. Also, T-Mobile's tethering is not throttled, unlike some other vendors (e.g. Verizon's "gounlimited"). Last I checked you could still get their cheaper "Simple Choice" prepaid plan for $40/mo, but that's very limited data-wise, something like 2 or 3GB.

whitepoplar 8y ago

It would be great if Apple could create their own version of Google Fi, optimized for iOS devices and, more importantly, privacy. This would also be cool for international use, where using my phone feels like playing Russian roulette. Is my Wi-Fi call billed at normal data rate? Am I being billed at $1/minute? Is my call even going over Wi-Fi? If Apple controlled the network, they could just say "This is a free call" on the call screen, or "This call is $0.20/minute." And even better, with flaky international Wi-Fi, the call could be locked into the initial rate even if it hops over to a cell tower if/when the Wi-Fi fails. All I want in a carrier is rock-solid predictability and reliability and for me to never think about it ever again. Google Fi comes really close to this, but it's still not ideal for those using Apple products.

caymanjim 8y ago

If you're happy with your phone service in the US, and you're a moderate or large data user, Google Fi is not likely to be a great deal for you. It's in the price ballpark of other carriers, but it's not cheap. For me, the four major wins for Fi are: 1. It's multi-carrier. It seamlessly switches to whichever carrier has the best signal. It also seamlessly switches to VoIP over wifi when in range. You can start a phone call on your work wifi, walk to a coffee shop, and use their wifi, walk home and use your wifi, and while you're walking, it'll hop between cell carriers to get the best signal. While my scenario is a bit artificial, it's impressive. The big win here is that you get a strong signal in places where other carriers fail. I had Sprint in Manhattan, and all you need to do to lose signal is walk next to a tall building. I'd get 5 bars outside my apartment and 2 bars inside. With Fi, I have a great signal everywhere. 2. You only pay for what you use. I'm not a huge data user. I never stream media on my phone, and my day-to-day use consists of reading the news and some light Facebook browsing. If you don't use any data, your bill is $20/month. A typical bill for me is about $40/mo, which is about half the price I'd pay with any other major carrier. Sometimes I need more, and having the option is nice. When I was commuting a lot, I'd tether, and use 6-12GB/mo. Since the 6-15GB window is "free", the bill would max out at $80/mo, which is comparable to other providers for similar usage. But instead of paying $80/mo all the time, I only pay that much when I need it. Once, I went over 15GB. The throttling was terribly (256KB), but I was also able to opt-in and pay $10/GB beyond that. I went up to 20GB full-bandwidth for the month, and my bill was $130, but required no commitment. Other providers don't even offer the option. 3. There's no commitment. If you own the phone, it's pay-as-you-go. You don't have to commit to a full-year plan. 4. The data rate applies internationally. I travel enough that paying $10/mo for data in other countries is a godsend. I used to have to buy local SIMs and pay outrageous rates for data in other countries.

briffle 8y ago
I get that its multi-carrier, but two of its 3 carriers are merging, and the 3rd carrier isn't nationwide (they have great coverage in some areas, and use 'partners' in other regions).. Really curious how the T-Mobile Sprint Merger will affect Fi.

karanke 8y ago

How does Fi work with family plans? Currently paying $140 on T-Mobile for 4 unlimited lines with unlimited international 3G roaming (good enough for maps and music) and other misc. benefits (half-off phones, free Netflix, unlimited in-flight wi-fi).

bkanber 8y ago

After having service with Verizon, T-Mobile, and Google Fi, I can say I like Fi the best. I'm almost always on wifi, and when I'm not it's because I'm traveling. My monthly bill is about half what it was when I was on T-Mobile, and the coverage is much better (plus voice+SMS over wifi). It's definitely not for people who rely on LTE all day long, but if you're mostly going from home to work under a wifi cloud all day, with some traveling overseas a few times a year, it's perfect.

exabrial 8y ago

I worry about Google spying on me, but I'm extremely pleased with Fi. It's followed me all over the world from the UK, France, Germany, China, and Singapore, as well as all over the USA in major cities and deserted areas as well. Annnnd... it's really easy to integrate with Jolly Roger Phone Company which makes for some good laughs.

dangoor 8y ago

It's cool to see this service graduate, and the addition of limited iPhone support. That said, this year I discovered Xfinity Mobile. We already have Comcast internet at home (which has actually worked quite well for us, despite Comcast's horrible customer service reputation). Xfinity Mobile costs nothing for talk/text for up to 5 phones + $12 per GB of shared data (or $45 per "unlimited" data per phones). After taxes, my bill has been hovering between $14-26, because I don't use a ton of data on the go. Oh, and they use Verizon as the underlying carrier, so the coverage has been good.

jdeibele 8y ago

My wife and I are on Xfinity Mobile, which uses Verizon towers. We're on the $12/gig plan, while texts and minutes are free. Our 3 kids are on Tello, which resells Sprint. They're on the 100 minutes, unlimited texts, 1GB of data plan for $10/month. With taxes, it's almost exactly $11. Verizon seems to have coverage in remote areas where Sprint doesn't, though sometimes it's been true that Sprint has service and Verizon doesn't. It might be that if we were using Verizon service from Verizon itself instead of through a reseller we'd have service. Given that we pay about $65/month for 5 lines of service, which is what we were paying for 1 line from Verizon, I'm not anxious to test that out. I've shown the kids how to adjust their phones to just use WiFi for app updates, etc. They're young enough that they're at school or home, not driving themselves around. Additional GB are $4/month on Tello. They get 2G speed if they hit their 1GB limit, which means they get iMessages, email, etc.

ryanmercer 8y ago

And it's still a steaming pile. I've been a Fi user since September of 2015 and I've had annoyance after annoyance. - MMS and SMS would send and the receipients would get multiple copies. In one instance someone got more than a dozen instances of a photo I sent - MMS and SMS would fail to show up regularly for a month - SMS showed up a full week after the fact in one instance - Visual voicemail failed to retrieve messages for the better part of a year once - It took them way too long to get 2fa SMS messages to actually deliver - People have had multiple years of issues with their phone not ringing, only ringing on hangouts on their computer, not hearing a ring when they call someone - People have had multiple years of people regularly being unable to hear them, people saying they sound extremely quiet, being unable to hear people, having awesome signal strength but breaking up terribly for the other person - Piss poor network switching over multiple years, for a solid 2 years you'd have edge and it wouldn't switch to the other one then two networks that had great signal 4g where you were - Unexplained mystery data usage for multiple people over multiple years - Terrible customer service for many when something is wrong - In multiple instances they allowed existing users numbers to be taken by other people - Countless instances of the 'hidden' number showing up when texting or calling someone Etc etc. The ONLY reason I'm still a subscriber is they still owe me $336.63 in referral credit from a contest over a year ago, I basically only pay taxes for my service.

ryanmercer 8y ago
Oh look, I'm being downvoted. Downvote away, you're either Google employees or dense. You are more than welcome to head over to /r/projectfi and see these problems posted day after day by hundreds (if not thousands of users) going back 3 years as well as all sorts of billing issues, number porting issues, trade-in issues, referral issues, warranty issues etc etc. Similarly you can find issue after issue on their official forum. They even screwed the pooch telling customers about the change today by sending the email to customers more than an hour after tweeting it and in the past when there have been critical issues with service, as in service down for thousands of subscribers, they've posted it on their obscure forum instead of emailing customers.

otterpro 8y ago

I use Tracfone because it is cheaper if I don't need unlimited talk/text. I probably average around $10/month on my Tracfone for everything, as my data usage is very light, and I only use about 100 minutes of voice. I'd use Google Fi when I'm traveling overseas, since it includes roaming, which is a killer feature.

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carlosvega 8y ago

In Spain I pay 19€ for unlimited calls (no SMS included), and 23GB of data and for 2€ more I can add another person to share my data plan.

satysin 8y ago
Yeah I just looked at the prices and was shocked at how expensive they are! I am in France and my 50GB mobile data (unlimited calls and texts) is part of my €55/month home internet package (which includes 1Gbit fiber internet, land line and a TV box + package not that I care for that). America has crazy expensive prices for mobile plans!

yc-kraln 8y ago

And Google launches another US-centric product without even thinking about the rest of the world. The lesson, of course, is that the rest of the world needs to get used to the idea that Google (and other bay area companies) are not designing for them, or consider them, and they should rather take care for themselves. What is the Google Fi of France? Of Germany? Of India?

cmcginty 8y ago

I wouldn't touch this considering how quickly Google shuts things down. Maybe if it's still available in 5 to 10 years.

garysahota93 8y ago

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

danielsju6 8y ago
It does.
- garysahota93 8y ago
  Sweet, Thanks!

toast0 8y ago

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.

desireco42 8y ago

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.

lambda_lover 8y ago

$200 credit if you bring your own device today? That's it, I guess I'll try a 6-month free trial of Fi...

novaleaf 8y ago

If this kind of ala-carte plan is interesting to you, check out ting. very similar but lower price. works with cdma or gsm phones. https://ting.com https://ting.com

AcerbicZero 8y ago

I've been on Fi for ~2 years now, and while the network kinda sucks sometiems, and $10/GB can be expensive, keeping the Google Voice spam filtering/call filtering, and doing all my texting via Hangouts is amazing. I'm sure sooner or later Google will fuck it up, and I'd honestly much rather have an iPhone these days, but for my current setup, its perfect.

OafTobark 8y ago
You can use Google Voice/Hangout for all their features without Fi So is there an advantage to paying for Fi otherwise that I am missing? The cost for the amount of data I use would far outweigh any benefits I can see here unless there are features you get with Fi for Voice/Hangout that I don’t know about.
- AcerbicZero 8y ago
  With Fi, you can still use hangouts for normal SMS, which they removed for non-Fi users last year (around the same time they removed merged conversations). Right now, all my SMS/MMS go through hangouts, and then down to whatever devices I want, which is great since I can use hangouts on my work phone, from the computer, etc, and all my texts still come and go from the same phone number.

hi41 8y ago

Regarding the exceeding 15gb and throttling... If it is a family plan, does this affect just the user who exceeded the 15gb limit or does data get throttled for all users in the plan.

reustle 8y ago

Fantastic! Can I use it with my Google Apps account yet? I've been forced to have my Fi account tied with my old gmail account for years, and I can't connect that account with my phone without getting tons of garbage emails.

falcor84 8y ago

Is this just for Americans? The site doesn't seem to mention anything at all about availability, but the signup form just had "state" and not "country".