
Google’s Project Fi now caps data bills at $60 - baus
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/17/googles-project-fi-now-caps-data-bills-at-60/
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casey_lang
I just switched to Project Fi this month. The service has been totally
acceptable and the support has been really helpful. Before today's
announcement I found myself constantly checking the Project Fi app to see how
much data I had used, something I never did on my old provider. This change is
much appreciated. I'm especially a fan of them simply rolling this out, no
need to opt in. The only way I would know of improved plan options on my old
provider was by having a conversation with a sales rep after a support call. I
do wish the price per gig was slightly cheaper but I'm comfortable with the
increased cost for the improvement of service.

~~~
codereflection
This is my case too. Switching 5 phones for my family over to Google Fi. So
far it's been excellent. I too was checking my data in the Project Fi app.
Happy to not have to do that anymore.

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jahabrewer
Also worth noting is that you now "post-pay" for the data you used at the end
of the billing cycle instead of pre-paying. I know that it works out roughly
the same, but it always struck me as unnecessarily complex that I had to guess
how much data I would use, get billed for that, then get refunded for what I
didn't use.

~~~
paulirwin
Agreed, that was always weird. I suppose the point was to allow for data usage
alert push notifications so you don't end up with a surprise large bill at the
end of the billing cycle.

~~~
mohaine
This. I upped my amount just to avoid the messages.

The cap at $60 is a really nice addition. I've had lots of people want to go
to Fi but as heavy data users they just couldn't.

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chrisconroy
FYI they will throttle users down to 256kbps if an individual user goes above
15G.

[https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6201699](https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6201699)

~~~
praneshp
But you can go back to full speed at the $10/GB rate again.

~~~
j_s
I may have missed my chance to participate in this discussion, but this is the
part I didn't understand.

Does this mean that when 1 phone goes past 15GB, it is necessary to opt-out of
the cap to return to normal speeds?

If not (and it doesn't make sense if opting out of the cap is somehow
possible), is there ever any case where someone would _not_ want to go back to
the normal speed as they cross the 15GB on the way to passing the cap?

Is the intention just to throw in a minor speed bump requiring the affected 1%
of users to contact support every month (leaving the few that are ignorant
throttled)?

~~~
praneshp
Great question. If I remember I'll reply somewhere in a month, I'll try to go
past the 15GB mark by then. Opting out of the cap would make this useless for
me.

But if you were reimbursed by an employer upto $X and that's what you want to
spend, not going to normal speed starts to make sense.

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tinyhouse
This is great. I just don't understand why mobile plans are so expensive in
the US. When I traveled to Israel I bought a local sim with no contract. It's
about $15/month for 10GB plus unlimited text/calls. They don't even offer
there plans with 2GB data, it's 10GB or more.

~~~
fastball
US providers are expected to provide national coverage, in a country that has
a much wider spread of population, while also being approximately the size of
Europe. It's not exactly an easy area to cover.

~~~
ForHackernews
In the UK, Three provides nationwide coverage + free roaming in 71 other
nations (including USA)[0] for as little as £13/month for 4 GB of data.

[0] [http://www.three.co.uk/feel-at-home](http://www.three.co.uk/feel-at-home)

[1]
[http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Plans_for_phones](http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Plans_for_phones)

~~~
fastball
Three's coverage is garbage outside the big cities (and sometimes garbage in
them!), and Feel At Home is never 4G.

~~~
ForHackernews
Everything except Verizon is garbage in rural America.

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CryoLogic
I moved from Project Fi to Mint Sim and could not be happier. Project Fi
forces you to call over wifi if your phone supports it, and constantly is
swapping cell providers to find the cheapest. Even mid call.

Probably 50% of my phone calls either dropped or had huge latency as a result.

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greysonp
I used to be on Project Fi, but it had the negative side effect of making me
always equate data usage to money. e.g. "Watching this YouTube video will
probably cost $0.50. Is it worth it?" This resulted me in using ~2GB of data,
which was a $40 phone bill. I switched to a T-Mobile 10GB plan for $50/mo
(unlimited 3G data after 10GB), and I couldn't be happier.

~~~
DrScump
Are you in the USA? I pay about $115/mo for 5 lines after the Kickback
rebates, and that includes Netflix. Modern plans don't throttle until
something like 23GB in a month.

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philipkglass
Using this story to ask: is poor voice-call quality common with Fi? I'm using
a Nexus 6P. This is my first smartphone and I'm totally happy with the device
and Project Fi for browsing, apps, texting, and tethering. But for plain voice
calls the latency, dropouts, and "underwater" sounds are significantly worse
than with my old prepaid feature phone, even when I see a strong signal. I had
hoped that voice quality would get _better_ (closer to Skype) when I bought a
leading smartphone. I don't know if I should blame the service or the device.
It's worse than laptop VOIP over DSL, my POTS voice line, or even a cheap
feature phone circa 2010.

~~~
xythian
This was my experience as well with Project Fi. Good data, bad voice. T-mobile
and ATT based MVNOs have typically given me better voice service.

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seishan
I wonder if this new policy affects international data usage at all. I've been
sticking with Project Fi largely due to how seamless the data roaming
experience has been for me.

~~~
tabrischen
In the article it does say: The bill protection feature includes international
data (which is always included) and also applies to data-only plans for
laptops, tablets and cars.

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scarface74
I pay $240 a month for 5 voice lines with "unlimited data" and one data only
line for my iPad with T-mobile. They also throw in a Netflix subscription in
with it that I was paying for separately so really it's $230. It has 2G
international data roaming included in most places and 4G roaming in Mexico
and Canada. Finally it has unlimited 3G tethering (that's good enough in a
pinch).

They don't throttle your dada over a certain limit but you do get
deprioritized during times of network congestion. My son who doesn't live with
us uses his phone for internet exclusively and he does 80GB+ a month without a
noticeable slow down. My wife has a split shift and between her shift, when
she's not at the gym, she watches about two or three hours of streaming video
a day.

I haven't had a problem with T-mobile except in very rural areas but that
doesn't happen often at all.

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mbrameld
I live in a US state capital city for part of the year and Google Fi only
offers 2G coverage there. Otherwise I'd have a new Pixel 2 XL and pods on the
way and be like AT&T who?

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blacksmith_tb
I wonder how this will impact Project Fi data-only SIMs[1] I have toyed with
the idea of switching to Fi to pop one of those into my Mikrotik router as a
'plan B' if my fiber connection drops (not that I would want to run all my
traffic over it for long...).

1:
[https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6330195?hl=en](https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6330195?hl=en)

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vuln
Honestly for me this wont matter. I typically only spend 40$ a month $20
talk/text then $20 data. I also find the fine print interesting.

>"If you use more than 15GB of data in a month (under 1% of current fi users
you'll expect slower data speeds with Bill Protection"

So with Bill Protection you get throttled, but if you pay then you don't...
Interesting.

~~~
croshan
I take it to mean you don't pay from 6-15 GB, and then pay onwards, if you
want to avoid throttling.

So, you still benefit $90, while getting the same quality service if you want
to pay the old prices. 15 GB/month really seems like a lot, though, coming
from someone who uses 1, maybe 2 GB, with Fi.

~~~
Someone1234
Seems like a fair scheme with few downsides.

Definitely nice to know that my bill cannot go higher than $80/month even with
some type of data usage run-away (look at you YouTube Kids!).

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saturdaysaint
FWIW, my Virgin Mobile plan costs $60 a month and isn't slowed until 23
gigabytes. Their unlimited plans for new customers are $50 per month.

As much as Google touts the "flexibility" to theoretically pay less, using
less than 6 gigabytes is pretty difficult in 2018 unless you use very few
services and have no interest in video.

~~~
taoistextremist
I rarely go over 2 GB a month. What are you doing to use so much? Or are you
on a group plan?

~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
Google Maps everyday and streaming music and sometimes video. That's enough to
cross 2GB trivially unless you are on something like T-Mobile that does not
consider major audio-video streaming sites against their data cap.

~~~
dingaling
> unless you are on something like T-Mobile that does not consider major
> audio-video streaming sites against their data cap

Isn't it odd that people don't raise their placards against this example of
network non-neutrality?

~~~
scarface74
The reason that breaking net neutrality is a problem is that it allows the
carriers to pick winners and losers based on special deals and makes it harder
for new entrants. T-mobile doesn't require payment from the video/audio
providers and doesn't discriminate. You just have to follow their documented
guidelines, have legal content, and sign up with them.

They even have one porn site at least (evidence they aren't discriminating
based on content). But they don't advertise it.

In other words, they may be breaking the letter of the concept of Net
Neutrality but not the spirit.

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abrkn
The best part about Google Fi is that you can use it _everywhere_ for the same
price. Even in China!

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shazzy
Question, why are mobile phone contracts in the US so expensive? In the UK I
pay £17/month for 4G, unlimited data, and free roaming in a whole bunch of
countries (including US). Anecdotally, when I roam in the US the speed is
faster than my SO who lives there.

~~~
tlarkworthy
UK is anomalously cheap (e.g. compared to other European countries)

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jwilliams
I switched to Project Fi as I'm always doing International Roaming. The Fi
data is the same cost internationally as domestically. This is a really killer
feature if you're on the road a lot.

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horsecaptin
When can I use an iPhone on Project Fi?

~~~
jwilliams
You can right now - but you do need to activate on a compatible phone. You can
then swap in an iPhone. It'll function fine, with some features missing (MMS,
Carrier Swapping) missing. I use a Project Fi data SIM in an iPhone as a
secondary device.

~~~
bernardino
Yep, this is true. Currently typing this on an iPhone SE with Project Fi. For
MMS, I highly recommend using Hangouts (particularly for voicemail). But
otherwise, I use iMessages. I have been doing this for the past year, it’s
been working smoothly.

~~~
horsecaptin
One of the big features of ProjectFi is the worldwide roaming, and we can't
get that on an iPhone from what I've seen. MMS via Hangouts is nice though.

~~~
jwilliams
The worldwide roaming works too. You just need to set the APN correctly. APN
is something like h2g2.

~~~
horsecaptin
Whoa. Thank you!

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maxaf
Project Fi is a non-starter for anyone who relies on their phone for critical
functions such as telephone service. Phone numbers are still king, and losing
mine as a result of some spurious Google account deletion would result in
calls from my child's school being met with dead silence.

~~~
ariwilson
So do you have an actual example of this happening with Project Fi?

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oconnore
I’m in Portugal right now, and my partner, who just recently switched to Fi,
has no access to her previous google voice number, and her main number (and Fi
service in general) has been on and off. Several people have complained they
can’t reach her.

I guess the previous poster was referring to losing a number permanently, but
still. Seems like they are still ironing out basic services like phone
numbers.

~~~
lev99
When you switch to Fi you have the option of moving your google voice number
to a different account.

When you leave Fi you have the option of moving your original number back to a
traditional carrier.

Or, at least that's how it worked in 2016 when I tried Fi.

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hedgew
In Europe, I pay $20 for unlimited mobile data at 100mbps.

~~~
ac29
How "unlimited" is that? Could you use 1TB/month? 10T? More?

~~~
cynix
No more than around 33TB/month, I bet!

