It's a low bar, but
I wanted to be one of the coolest kids on the block so I joined
Project Fi.
I hate cell companies and their bills and so I've been using a pre-paid flip phone for a couple years. Cost: $40/year. But I did want a real phone with a better carrier. A better carrier: another low bar.
Cyndi has been using
Republic Wireless for a few months of cell service and is quite happy with their service and her new Nexus. I am
happy with it too, because it brought her cell bill down from $60 /
month to $12 with even better service.
Both Republic
Wireless and Project Fi try to use available wireless networks
whenever possible. Since these are typically “free”, they keep
the phone's data usage in check. Both have unlimited domestic calls
and text messages.
Cyndi's service
rides on T-Mobile while Fi's uses both T-Mobile and Sprint. Fi has
better security built in and works much better internationally.
Neither requires a
contract, both use Android phones (Nexus).
My base monthly cost
is higher at $20 but the data charges are lower at $10 / GB vs $15
for Cyndi. And you only pay for the bytes you actually send over
celluar. Cyndi mostly just talks and texts, so her data charges are
pretty much zero.
Both have controls
to, well, control how much you use celluar data. FI's controls are
finer grain but harder to use and find. But both do a good job of
allowing you to decide when / if to use celluar data and handle the
trade-off of cost / convenience.
Cyndi had no
problems with her service but when I started with Fi, my SMS texting
did not work even tho MMS texting did work. I contacted Customer
Service and they were quick to respond and very polite and friendly
but the responses always was “a technician is working on it.”
When I finally heard back from the tech, the service had magically
started to work by itself. The tech admitted they had problems like
this (I had xferred a Google voice number and that is, for obscure
reasons, a mess). It took a week but they did give me a fair credit
for the time I was unable to text.
Then I got a pretty
dress for the Nexus. It looks so sexy in it's new dress.
So I'm cooler than
all my neighbors, except for Jackie. And maybe Michelle.
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| My new phone was excited to take it's first selfie. |
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| My new phone All Dress Up And stuck at home with me |