Google Fi?

[mtnbkr]

I've had Google Fi for a couple years now. Works great with the type of travelling I do given that there's no extra "international plan" you have to pay for like other carriers. My plan is no contract, $20/month, $10 per GB of data used but maxes at $80/month without shutting off service. My average bill ends up being $27-$44/month.

I'm a Luddite that doesn't see any value in expensive phones, so I bought a Moto G Power outright for $99 from them when I signed up. No complaints.

Great coverage. Have never found an area where it doesn't have service unless that's an area that just lacks cell signal to begin with. Usually takes a minute or two upon landing in a new country to establish signal, that's all.

Love it. Google Fi is tailor made for my job, honestly.

Thanks! I haven't traveled internationally since Covid, but one day I expect to be doing that again, so knowing it works great overseas is a plus.

Chris

[octagon]

I had a Samsung Galaxy S9 or whatever was the newest version at the time and I sold it for almost what I paid for my Pixle so it was close to break even. We always buy our phones outright to keep costs down since we keep our phones till they die and it avoids extra costs. Other phones do work just fine without switching networks especially if you are in any kind of urban or suburban area. Being super rural we chose not to do a phone with wifi and one cellular network just for redundancy sake. It also helps with international travel to have network switching since different countries have different coverage.

Mntbkr glad to share the discount code with you if you try it. FYI it is a single $20 savings per new account so nothing earth shattering but some of my monthly bills when in the US are close to $25 so similar to a free month.

[mtnbkr]

Using my wife's old Iphone 7, I did some testing with GoogleFi. It worked great everywhere (Northern VA, Blue Ridge Mtns within 50 miles of NoVA, all along the I95 corridor between NoVA and semi-rural NC), but failed miserably at my mom's house (smallish town about an hour from Raleigh, NC). Signal strength was weak but usable outside, but once you stepped inside the house, it dropped to nothing and the phone was unusable. No good since my mom uses an Iphone and is very much non-technical. I simply cannot have her trying to troubleshoot or switch to some wifi-based calling mechanism (google duo, etc). For her, it must simply work.

Shame really since there were places I go up in the mountains where there was no Verizon signal but plenty with GoogleFi on the Iphone (ie Tmobile).

I didn't test on Android as I assumed that would "just work" anywhere the service on an Iphone worked.

I'm now considering Visible and Verizon's Welcome 5g plan. The former is cheaper and uses VZ's network, but coverage *can* lag a bit in the hinterlands. However, my brother uses this service for work and says it works great (he's in SW VA and travels to our mom's regularly). The VZ Welcome 5g plan is similar in price, but doesn't include hotspot usage, which is important. I think I'm going to get a Visible SIM and test it out. Either plan will save us a lot of money.

Chris

[TGS]

. I simply cannot have her trying to troubleshoot or switch to some wifi-based calling mechanism (google duo, etc). For her, it must simply work.

Is this a limitation of her old iPhone 7?

You shouldn't need an app for wifi calling. You should just be able to enable wifi calling when setting up the phone on the wifi network for her, and it just seamlessly transfer as she enters or leaves the house, no?

[0ddl0t]

I switched to fi last year after 20 years with Verizon. Coverage in rural areas is probably 95% of what Verizon offered, but with Fi I can actually receive calls inside my new home (with Verizon about 80% of my calls would go straight to voicemail when inside and I wouldn't learn of them until leaving hours later).

Switching towers, or switching from my home's wifi to the cellular network outside, is sometimes a bit buggy. It doesn't drop calls, but there can be 4 or 5 seconds of dead air before it makes the change. On rare occasions, especially hiking in a nearby national park, I have to turn on airplane mode and then turn it off to force the phone to change to a stronger tower. These may be pixel 4a issues moreso than Fi...

I suspect, but can't prove, that Google uses data from Fi to tailor ads throughout its suite of products. For instance last week I spent a few hours in an office park which is across the street from a casino and all this week I've been inundated with various gambling ads & promotions. I also noticed I got a lot more new car ads the week after I picked up some parts from a toyota dealer in a large automall.

[VT1032]

I just switched over to this from T-Mobile and have been pretty happy so far. Works great and at $20 per line it's cheaper than even T-Mobile's military discount. The T-Mobile network it uses has gotten a lot better recently with the 5g rollout. I was a previous TMobile user pre 5g and it was basically unusable outside urban areas in my state. It's night and day better now. I get 5g coverage in the middle of nowhere most of the time now.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[mtnbkr]

Is this a limitation of her old iPhone 7?

It's a general limitation of Iphones. One of the features of GoogleFi is the ability to switch carriers to get the best service. Android phones can do this but Iphones cannot. This is why Iphone support in GoogleFi is still considered "beta". The end result is Iphones on GoogleFi are locked into T-mobile, which is weaker where she lives. It doesn't help that her house is a virtual faraday cage. Even VZ isn't strong inside her house, but it's "strong enough".

You shouldn't need an app for wifi calling. You should just be able to enable wifi calling when setting up the phone on the wifi network for her, and it just seamlessly transfer as she enters or leaves the house, no?

The type of wifi calling you're referring to is still provider-dependent and must also be supported by the phone. A newer iphone would probably be able to do that, but I'm not sure offhand if GoogleFi supports it for Iphone.

I'm considering Visible now. It's roughly the same costs but uses Verizon's network (they're owned by VZ). Visible is $25/month with all taxes and fees. GoogleFI is $20/month, but that price doesn't include taxes and fees, so the price works out to be about the same. Being on Verizon's network should mean it'll work everywhere we need it to work, but I want to do a bit of testing since there could be coverage gaps on the edges.

Chris

[mtnbkr]

I was a previous TMobile user pre 5g and it was basically unusable outside urban areas in my state. It's night and day better now. I get 5g coverage in the middle of nowhere most of the time now.

That was my experience with Tmobile several years ago when my company moved me from AT&T to Tmobile in a cost-saving measure. I was at a rural wedding outside of Charlottesville one weekend and missed a major customer-oriented escalation (I was a SOC manager at the time), only getting it when I stopped at a fast food restaurant on the way home and connected to their WiFi. Needless to say, my manager approved me going back on AT&T immediately after that.

Fast forward 7 years and Tmobile seems to work better. I was on top of a mountain outside of Front Royal (60-odd miles west of DC) and had Tmobile service on my GoogleFi test platform and *nothing* with Verizon.

Chris

[Duces Tecum]

I'm cautious abut Google-anything. Privacy issues and such. Is this position unreasonable with Google-Fi?


Duces

[mtnbkr]

I'm cautious abut Google-anything. Privacy issues and such. Is this position unreasonable with Google-Fi?


Duces

Dunno. They're essentially reselling capacity from the big providers, so I don't think the traffic passes through their systems, but I don't know for certain. I suppose they can track your location, movement habits, etc, but so can the others. I've had some rather interesting ads and content suggestions on various platforms after talking with others in earshot of my phone (not via the phone, just around it), so I'm of the opinion that any phone and any provider is a risk.

Chris