
Google Fi Unlimited Plan - jbredeche
https://fi.google.com/about/plans/
======
kempbellt
I hate this kind of advertising. It is bullshit and I am tired of it.

In GIANT BOLD: $50

In smaller font: "each"

In even smaller font: "$150/mo" is finally explained

"High-speed data up to 22 GB/person & slower after." is not unlimited data
when the "slower after" speeds can barely load google's search page. It is,
'high-speed data up to 22 GB/person & slower after". Do we need to start
throwing around a dictionary definition of the word unlimited? This is getting
old...

Just because it's google, doesn't mean they get a pass on car-salesman type
sleazy sales tactics.

Why not just advertise it plainly? This method of advertising makes someone
like me less likely to buy this product.

~~~
CamelCaseName
>In smaller font: "each"

>In even smaller font: "$150/mo" is finally explained

That is really, truly, unfair. The font size choice is quite reasonable, and
makes it easily readable.

Here's what it would look like if the text was the same size:

[https://i.imgur.com/fTFlgHj.png](https://i.imgur.com/fTFlgHj.png)

[https://i.imgur.com/DCWpN9J.png](https://i.imgur.com/DCWpN9J.png)

>"High-speed data up to 22 GB/person & slower after." is not unlimited data
when the "slower after" speeds can barely load google's search page. It is,
'high-speed data up to 22 GB/person & slower after". Do we need to start
throwing around a dictionary definition of the word unlimited? This is getting
old...

I use Freedom (previously known as Wind) in Canada, and their "slower speeds"
on the unlimited plans are more than satisfactory. I don't even notice that
I'm throttled until I check my text messages.

As a result, I reach 12GB+ on my 6GB plan almost every month.

So for me, their unlimited plan is very much unlimited.

~~~
FussyZeus
> That is really, truly, unfair. The font size choice is quite reasonable, and
> makes it easily readable.

Yeah, but it's insulting. "Unlimited" is not unlimited with a fucking limit,
doesn't matter how reasonable or unreasonable it is. Every time I look at an
ad I gotta sit there and look for asterisks or numbers, and then find the fine
print where the actual information is contained, not just the marketing wank.

How about just tell me how much your fucking thing costs in plain fucking
English? Maybe I don't want to decipher your advert like it's a goddamn
Captcha. $150 for Unlimited (assuming it was actually unlimited, which it's
not) isn't even an unreasonable price, but when you lead with $50, and then oh
by the way it's actually $150, oh and by the way it's limited, you've made
what is logically a good deal now look tremendously worse for your effort of
trying to "hook" me.

How about just tell me what it costs, you know, like you're an honest seller
of a product and I'm a grown fucking man who you have an ounce of respect for?

~~~
dheera
I totally agree with this. 22GB is 22GB, not Unlimited. Just say it's 22GB.

There are lots of things I would do with something truly unlimited that I
couldn't do with 22GB.

~~~
FussyZeus
And I've paid a lot more than $150 a month for 8GB for a long time from
Verizon. This is not a bad deal but is made to _look_ like a bad deal, is my
point, because the marketers just can't help themselves.

------
JoshTriplett
I use Google Fi, and I don't think unlimited data is the headline feature
here. If you look at the fine print on the existing "flexible" plan (search
for "that’s a max bill of"), they already cap the maximum data cost; comparing
the cap to the Fi Unlimited price, Fi Unlimited saves you very little, in
exchange for never letting you pay _less_ if you use less data.

Based on that, and the fact that I _rarely_ hit the cap, it isn't worth
switching.

However, Google Fi Unlimited _also_ gives unlimited international calls to
many countries. _That_ might make it worth switching, at least for months I'm
traveling.

~~~
tetra_proxy
It does give you another 7 gigs of data before they start to throttle your
data.

~~~
bpchaps
Google fi user here: when they throttle in areas with weak cell signal, the
throttling is _aggressive_ and internet practically doesn't work. It's very
frustrating. "Throttling" isn't the right word.. maybe "crippling" is better.

~~~
lowmagnet
Also a Fi user, and the quality of my internet is almost entirely based on
whether the carrier is Sprint or not. Sprint, at least around here, almost
always has no upstream bandwidth, so you can't even get a request to go out.

If you get the fi info app, it can fill your clipboard with a switch carrier
sequence you paste into your dialer and it will switch you to one of the
alternate carriers.

It may help your situation.

~~~
teamspirit
It's not hard to memorize it's 'FI' \+ $CODE. I switch regularly when I have
poor connection:

 _#_ #FITMO# _#_ (TMobile) _#_ #FISPR# _#_ (Sprint) _#_ #FIUSC# _#_ (US
Cellular) <\- Have never used this though _#_ #FINEXT# _#_ (Next carrier) _#_
#FIAUTO# _#_ (Switch back to auto)

I never got the app, though I really wanted to at first, thinking it did this
automatically, but all it does is paste in the dialer codes. Why would I pay
for that?

------
shanecoin
Google Fi is the only provider that I know of to best protect against SIM
swapping due to the fact that there is no human interface. An attacker would
have to get control of you Google account in order to attack you—if this
happens it is likely you have bigger issues than SIM swapping.

Given Jack Dorsey's recent Sim swapping experience coupled with countless
cryptocurrency SIM swapping horror stories, it feels like Google Fi is
necessary. The only negative thing I have heard about Google Fi is the
requirement to pay per GB. This point is now moot.

~~~
briffle
In my state, their coverage is pretty bad if you spend any time in the
outdoors. Comparing the coverage of google-fi and verzion and att on highways
through the mountains, its very stark. I'm also curious how they will fare
when 2 of their 3 MVNO providers merge (sprint and tmobile)

~~~
cptskippy
Eventually service will improve. Presently Sprint and T-Mobile both dedicate
spectrum to the same thing. They have to reserve some spectrum for legacy
applications while optimizing for newer technologies. By combining their
spectrum they might be able to reduce the aggregate spectrum necessary for
legacy applications and better utilize spectrum fro newer technologies.

~~~
Dylan16807
Avoiding overlaps helps with bandwidth. I don't know if it will help with
coverage.

~~~
jsjohnst
It _might_ help with coverage as they aren’t needing 2x as many towers to
cover the same area, thus _potentially_ justifying adding towers in new
places, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that happening in any broad way.

------
stove
Google Fi has been amazing as a "digital nomad". Show up in country X and have
a working phone with 4g/LTE + ability to tether. Local sim cards are cheaper,
but you can't beat the ease of use.

Conversely, I've noticed that my cell service is significantly better (call
quality, coverage, etc.) abroad than it is in the SF Bay Area.

~~~
copperx
> ability to tether

In a different thread, people were complaining that Google Fi doesn't let you
tether while roaming. Is that false? Or is it just a limitation for certain
phones?

~~~
dlisboa
Only for iPhones. Androids tether normally. It's due to agreements between
Google and the carriers. I was able to tether with an iPhone in Costa Rica,
but I've been to 20+ countries with it and it's been only one or two countries
where it worked.

------
Sodman
Interesting distinction between the new unlimited plan and the old one:

"On the Fi Flexible plan, video streams at 1080p (Full HD quality). On the Fi
Unlimited plan, video may be streamed at 480p (DVD quality)."

~~~
ISL
If the internet is a dumb pipe, how does it know whether you're streaming
video and at what rate?

~~~
bvandewalle
When you are Google, the internet is not a dumb pipe. For example they can
correlate the youtube videos you are watching from your phone.

~~~
mostvexing
Doesn't this violate net neutrality?

~~~
james-mcelwain
What net neutrality? Net neutrality was repealed over a year ago.

------
drtz
Purely anecdotal, but my experience with Fi has been far less than ideal and
I'm about ready to switch to another network.

Right now I'm about a week into fighting with support, so far unsuccessfully,
to get back $40 in charges for device protection on a device that was
deactivated months ago. Their response: "it's your duty to remove device
protection when deactivating a device."

This is after more than a year of struggling with WiFi tethering issues. I've
had a ton of problems with the hotspot dropping WiFi connections and other
weird networking problems where the phone suddenly stops routing traffic
correctly (I suspect it's something to do with the network swap). In the ~10
times I've contacted them about the issue, support has been absolutely
terrible. They usually take about 30 minutes before they even figure out what
tethering is, only to suggest I install OS updates or swap out my phone for
the nth time.

~~~
jdm2212
The device protection seems like it should be separate from the phone plan
though? Unless the device protection is voided by canceling your service, it
makes sense to not cancel those charges. You might deactivate the device and
take it to another provider but still want it fixed if it breaks, right?

~~~
adrianmonk
You could want that, but it's not the common case. Therefore, to me it sounds
like something they should ask about when you deactivate service, and they
should either have no default (force you to explicitly choose) or default it
to canceling the device protection.

------
bovermyer
When I switched to Google Fi, my phone bill dropped from $140 a month
(Verizon, two people) to $60 a month (1 person), including the monthly finance
charge for my phone.

Now, with two people and no phone financing, our bill is a combined $80 a
month most months.

I don't see why I'd use this Unlimited plan, given that it's much more
expensive.

Also, unrelated: Google Fi has been amazing when travelling abroad (Dominican
Republic and Thailand, specifically). Full signal and no added charges
everywhere there.

Sadly, my wife and I are planning to go back to Verizon just to get iPhones.

~~~
cptskippy
I pay $145 a month on T-Mobile for 6 lines with "unlimited" everything,
international data, and discount international call/text.

~~~
joecool1029
Around the same for me as well. And I do find the "unlimited" is pretty much
as advertised even with deprioritization since I live in a rural area. My
average use on one of the lines is 250GB/mo. It usually sits around 35mbit
down, 5mbit up... this compares favorably with cable options in my area.

~~~
cptskippy
I don't think I've ever been throttled though I go over the 2GB kickback limit
every so often and it costs me $10.

------
risfriend
Wow, being in India this cost is enterprise level. Its super costly. You can
get ~42 GB (1.4 GB per day limit) data for around 400 INR, thats 6 USD per
month.

~~~
blueblisters
I was just thinking about how long that party is going to last. I am not sure
service providers can sustain this much longer without tapping into revenue
from upstream value add (streaming, advertisements etc.)

------
jbarham
I'm surprised how expensive this is. In Australia I pay A$25/month (around
US$17) for unlimited talk & SMS and 18 GB of fast 4G data:
[https://www.aldimobile.com.au/plans/value-
packs/](https://www.aldimobile.com.au/plans/value-packs/).

~~~
rootsu
Depends on the country. I pay ~$17/Month combined for 4 lines, each with 150
GB 4G data then unlimited 2g, unlimited calls and sms. Also Data can be rolled
over to next month upto 2TB combined.

------
longstation
I am using mint. Not trying to compare it with Google Fi because it offers
only the basic features: text, voice and data (no fancy features like
international roaming). But when people say they cut down a lot on phone
bills, I want to point out that I spend only $15 on my phone bill, $30 for the
entire family (two people).

------
ram_rar
Google Fi is expensive for individuals. Their initial premise was $20 base for
unlimited text/phone and $10 / Gb. It was very naive of me to think that my
avg phone bill would decrease a lot. But the data streaming adds up.

You are better off in a group plan (unlimited data) with friends on TMobile.
it ll cost you lot less.

~~~
chronic71819
> Google Fi is expensive for individuals. Their initial premise was $20 base
> for unlimited text/phone and $10 / Gb.

Pixel 3 user here. I pay $30/month on average.

What on Earth are you torrenting on your phone? I've never used more than 5 GB
data in a month. Just wait till you're back on wifi before watching YouTube...

~~~
leet
But Tmobile family plan costs you $30/month with unlimited data. I think it is
crazy that we have to pay $10/ GB for data specially when I am traveling
around the country with no wifi.

~~~
sliken
Which $30 unlimited plan? The grandfathered one with a max of 60 minutes of
voice you get through walmart?

I had a family plan through t-mobile and after years of getting more expensive
per month (no enterprise discount, increasing number of taxes/fees, etc) I
switched to google fi and halved my bill.

Some tips for those trying to minimize bandwidth: 1) tell google phones to
backup pictures/videos on wifi 2) preload maps for any cities you visit more
than monthly 3) get a podcast app (if you listen) that preloads them when on
wifi 4) get youtube red ($10 a month) for no ads, downloadable youtube videos,
and downloading your top 500 songs.

With the above, even when traveling quite a bit I average 1-2GB a month. I
generally use nav every time I drive just to get the traffic info/warnings.

------
NullPrefix
>High-speed data up to 22 GB/person & slower after

That's not really unlimited.

------
lysp
In Australia one of the major Telcos got taken to court by the competition
watchdog.

They were advertising plans as "unlimited" with shaping.

The court found that the advertising was misleading and were unable to
continue advertising it.

If Fi was released as advertised in Australia it'd also most likely be found
as misleading advertising and not allowed.

[https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/376550/optus_loses_...](https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/376550/optus_loses_unlimited_broadband_dispute/)

------
cryptofits
I used Google Fi last month when I traveled in Turkey-Russia

I was surprised by how good this service is and by how fast google support
answered when I had some questions

They should open it to more countries and not only for U.S citizens

------
gok
It remains frustrating that no provider offers a plan which more accurately
reflects how the cell network functions. When your local cells is not near
full load, downstream bandwidth should cost nothing over your fixed monthly
access fee. When the network is busy, they should auction off high speed
access (call that "surge data"). From a UI perspective this would have have
been hard to do pre-smartphone but nowadays it would be pretty straight-
forward.

The desire for these "easy to understand" data plans instead results in really
inefficient network operation. Throughput collapses in busy areas during
business hours even if you pay for the super mega ultra unlimited plan,
because everyone is using their "unthrottled" data. Meanwhile if off-peak
usage were more discounted (say, $0.10/GB instead of $10/GB) many people would
probably be able to give up their home internet service.

~~~
dehrmann
> It remains frustrating that no provider offers a plan which more accurately
> reflects how the cell network functions.

This is one of my gripes with net neutrality, mostly on cell networks. It
ignores how the network operates and that saturating a link at 3AM is
different that 5PM.

> From a UI perspective this...would be pretty straight-forward.

Not really. "You're about to stream a video. Tap to accept the 15 cent network
surge fee."

~~~
ocdtrekkie
When cell plans commonly had night and weekend minutes, people didn't need to
accept the charges each time. This is a ridiculous interpretation.

But say, people might schedule their Steam downloader to only update games in
off-peak hours. And apps might have features that cache content automatically
during off peak to save their users money.

~~~
Dylan16807
> But say, people might schedule their Steam downloader to only update games
> in off-peak hours. And apps might have features that cache content
> automatically during off peak to save their users money.

This is a phone. At that stuff is set to use wifi.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
> Meanwhile if off-peak usage were more discounted (say, $0.10/GB instead of
> $10/GB) many people would probably be able to give up their home internet
> service.

Grandparent comment suggests otherwise. Note that my personal preference would
be for both wireless and landline services to meter data use fairly, and then
ideally have such an off-peak mechanic to encourage scheduling high data use
activities.

------
sarego
I bought my wife's phone bundled with Fi with interest free installments.
However since I had to activate the phone itself using her email id the
installments never happened they charged me the amount all together. I called
support but they didn't help/ didn't know how to. I have never had to call
them since then which helps.

I myself have a republic connection which IMHO opinion is very similar and has
a very similar plan getting bandwidth from different carriers to operate.
Republic is much better for some reason in terms of coverage and is cheaper as
well.

Overall I am appalled by the cost of mobile data and internet in the USA
compared to countries like India. Reliance JIO just changed the game in India
with the unlimited data and every other provider was forced to up their game.
Not seeing anything like that happening here.

------
throwaway5752
Ting is just great. So funny to see TUCOWS - "The Ultimate Collection Of
Winsock Software" from decades ago - morphed into its current form. Great
example of the moat from exceptional customer service, I wouldn't even
consider Fi for a second, outside of a trying it out on a secondary device.

------
bobbles
For unlimited data with included international data... shouldnt I be able to
sign up for this internationally and essentially get unlimited usage in my own
country?

For example my phone plan costs over $100AUD so that I can get a measly 1GB of
international roaming data.. this seems like it would be a better option?

------
Arelius
I'd like to point out that at the 256kbps throttle, you can actually only
download about 80GB of data in a month. Add on the 22 GB pre throttling, and
you get just over 100GB/mo hard cap. Really doesn't sounds like "unlimited" to
me.

------
rb808
I always really expected Google Fi to be cheap and good. Its relatively
expensive though, I'm surprised people choose to use it. MVNOs are getting
really cheap now like $15, even big 4 telcos (3 of them!) prepaid are like
20-30/mo

~~~
sdenton4
Huh, I find the price quite good. I have two people on the flexible plan,
$15/mo + $10/GB, which typically comes to $35-50 a month. Previously we were
on t mobile and paying like $90 a month baseline (including add on for travel
flexibility, which is free on Fi), and sometimes getting to $110 or so.

~~~
rb808
Yeah travel is the main benefit. FYI ATT prepaid is $25/mo for an 8GB plan
[https://www.att.com/prepaid/](https://www.att.com/prepaid/). Mint is $15/mo
for 3GB [https://www.mintmobile.com/product/12-month-small-sim-
card-p...](https://www.mintmobile.com/product/12-month-small-sim-card-plan/)

------
dougmwne
Firstly, I'm not sure what the magic is on this service within the USA now
that T-Mobile and Sprint are merging. That was the original premise, that Fi
would allow you to blend multiple phone networks for better service. It would
be awesome if they managed to bring on another of the carriers and US mobile
doesn't count for most of the US.

Having said that, the international roaming is the best offer that I know of
from a US provider and I could easily see it being worth it for anyone who
travels often. They also just added free calling to 50 countries on this
unlimited plan, so that's also a great bonus if you work internationally
often.

~~~
smoovb
With the ease of adding a roaming eSIM, there is not much need to worry about
origin of international roaming plans. You can get an eSIM2Fly (Thailand) or
Three (Hong Kong) eSIM for roaming in all of Asia for under $5 per GB.

------
pishpash
Why is this on HN? This is an ad with no new information. (Capped plan existed
for a long time.)

------
the_mitsuhiko
I find this “unlimited” meaning 22GB very ridiculous.

~~~
sliken
Why? You binge several seasons of TV through your phone. You exceed 22GB...
you click on youtube/netflix/whatever and it... works.

If you keep asking for data... they keep sending it. Sounds unlimited to me.

~~~
diffeomorphism
It doesn't work.

If you rent a car and it says "unlimited mileage _._ Speed reduced to 3 mph
after the first 10 miles". The car keeps driving, it is "unlimited" but
useless for normal usage. Netflix and youtube will simply not work (buffering
for 5 seconds every 3 seconds is not working), but you can keep using it for
"whatever"* (*maybe, sometimes, for the first 10 days).

~~~
sliken
DVD quality is hardly 3 MPH. DVD quality is more like unlimited miles you can
only do the speed limit.

Using a phone with "only" DVD quality streaming video is still perfectly
usable. Sure it's not HD quality, but if you are streaming over 22TB a month a
small decrease and video quality isn't a big deal. How much are you going to
see on a small phone screen anyways?

~~~
diffeomorphism
What? No, you don't get DVD quality.

They say that while still under 22GB you might get only DVD quality (fine. I
don't care).

After that you are throttled.

~~~
sliken
Seems pretty clear to me, from their FAQ:

On the Fi Flexible plan, video streams at the highest available quality. On
the Fi Unlimited plan, video may be streamed at 480p (DVD quality).

It doesn't say anything about less than DVD. So assuming good signal
strength/infrastructure you'll likely get better than DVD for 22GB then "only"
DVD after.

~~~
diffeomorphism
You are misreading that.

\- On the Flexible plan, while under your data limit, video streams are at the
highest available quality. \- On the Unlimited plan, while under your data
limit, video streams are at DVD quality, even if you have a very good signal.

The throttling is in addition to that:

> If you use more than 15 GB of data in a cycle on the Fi Flexible plan or
> more than 22 GB in a cycle on the Fi Unlimited plan (less than 1% of
> individual Fi users as of Jan. 2018), you'll experience slower speeds (256
> kbps) above those respective data thresholds until your next billing cycle
> begins.

What you are proposing would be completely fine (throttling to DVD speed),
what they are actually doing is "throttling so even just reading websites or
google searches becomes annoying".

------
Animats
"Unlimited", ha! If the FTC wasn't out to lunch, they'd hammer on Google for
false advertising.

Sonic.net sells unlimited bidirectional gigabit fiber. And they're profitable.
Why can't Google do it?

Their only limitation is: " _Operation of servers for commercial purposes by
non-Enterprise customers. Note that it is acceptable to use servers for
private or personal use (such as servers to access content in your home and
applications that have server capabilities such as multiplayer gaming) and for
small business customers to operate private (in-profile) servers for business
purposes._ "

~~~
dheera
Truly unlimited exists in the fiber world, but I'm not aware of any truly
unlimited LTE plans. Considering Google Fi is an MVNO they are unlikely to be
able to offer something that the carriers they use don't offer.

I agree with you though, it's false advertising. They should all be fined and
banned from falsely using the world "unlimited".

------
Schnitz
This is a disappointment. I've been a Fi customer since the early days, but
the last year or so I was mostly just staying on Fi because I was hoping
they'd announce better pricing. Everything uses so much more data than 3 years
ago now, which has made Fi more and more expensive. Is there still any way to
get the T-Mobile $30 Walmart plan? I now regret giving that plan up for Fi,
because today where you easily need 2+GB of data every month it's a much
better deal, it even offered 2G data internationally (enough for WhatsApp,
maps, etc). I'll be looking for Fi alternatives now that I know to not expect
better pricing.

~~~
uptown
Verizon prepaid works well for me:

[https://www.verizonwireless.com/prepaid/](https://www.verizonwireless.com/prepaid/)

------
jrockway
> Video may stream at DVD-quality (480p).

So much for net neutrality. How far Google has come.

------
yalogin
I am probably concerned unnecessarily here but I am worried about providing
all data from my phone to Google like this. I know they are probably already
getting every bit of data from my phone through their ad network but I would
like them to at least make the effort to get my data rather than me paying and
giving it to them. I know its silly given that I am already giving it my
current carrier, may be its better to just give it to Google as they already
have my data and not giving it to the carrier will cut out one copy of my
data.

------
microcolonel
The fact that they take the roaming boot off your neck is worth it on its own.
Even if it's "faux unlimited", their roaming agreement is sooooooooooooo good,
if it is as it seems to be described.

Not really sure why anyone would stream video at more than 480p on a phone,
and I have no idea how they could implement that anywhere except YouTube and
maybe a couple partners (Netflix?) but that may be worth trying the Flexible
plan, which is still pretty great for roaming.

------
elamje
Not that huge of a headline due to them already having a form of unlimited.
This saves some pennies if you go over that cap consistently.

However, I commend the Fi team for working out the details for international
travelers. I used it for a 20+ country, Asia/Europe trip with 0 complaints.
China/Russia/Thailand/etc....always just worked! Very amazing, and probably
saved me hundreds from avoiding those scammy airport SIM cards everywhere.

------
aabajian
"Let Google Fi enhance your network. Get more privacy and more security. Your
mobile and Wi-Fi data is sent through Google Fi's Virtual Private Network
(VPN). Get fewer connection interruptions by automatically connecting to
mobile data when Wi-Fi is poor. appears in the status bar when the VPN is
active. The Google Fi VPN increases data usage by about 10%. You can turn this
off in Fi Network Tools in the Google Fi app."

------
projectileboy
I’m very interested in the plan as it’s written. The main reason I wouldn’t
switch to this from T-Mobile is that I honestly never know when Google will
decide to just say, “welp, we got bored with this, so we’re taking our ball
and going home - good luck switching back!” Aside from GMail getting slower
and the search results containing more ads, I don’t feel like you can really
count on Google to stick with anything.

------
smsm42
It looks not spectacular but OK, but I would never switch my main phone there
for one reason - it's not their core business. They could decide to kill it
any moment. Even though it's not too hard to switch, it's not worth the
hassle. If it were half-price of other plans, maybe, but it's roughly the
same, maybe different features a bit.

------
paxys
Unlimited data even when roaming internationally is a game changer. Definitely
worth $70/mo for people who travel frequently.

------
nikolay
Google Fi is a no-go for me as they make me lose my Google Voice number.
Currently, I'm on the old T-Mobile One plan with One Plus International for
$25/mo, which gives me unlimited Hot Spot and LTE data plus a lot more.
Unfortunately, the knuckleheads at T-Mo discontinued it, so, now they have
almost no competitive advantage.

------
morpheuskafka
So $70/month for 22 GB of data with mandatory video throttling? This isn't
newsworthy or a good deal.

------
nikanj
Does anyone know why the signup process stalls for me (
[https://imgur.com/a/Ato8rDq](https://imgur.com/a/Ato8rDq) )? I hate sites
that just disable the "Next"-button without any explanation

------
s09dfhks
Just switched from googleFi to xinfinty. They offer unlimited for $50 for a
single line.

I was a bit worried about leaving Fi since I had an upcoming trip to Europe
since they offer the "built in roaming" but it really wasnt an issue

------
julienchastang
Slightly off topic. I’ve been looking to get a Moto G6, a phone available
through the Google Fi store ($99), but it is permanently “out of stock”. I
assume this is on purpose as Google wants you to purchase a more expensive
phone — a bit of a bait and switch. Anyway I did manage to get a “blush”
version of the phone yesterday, which is now again out-of-stock. I’ve been
waiting to get the black version of the phone with no luck. I even registered
to be notified for availability but that evidently does not work since they
never notified us concerning the "blush" version of the Moto G6.

------
nickthemagicman
Google fi unlimited 70$ for 22 gigz

Verizon unlimited 100$ bucks for 75 gig

------
fnord77
Are they losing money on the service and somehow making it back from data
harvesting (either directly or indirectly by selling more google phones)?

------
techntoke
Google has some issue where you're not eligible for Google if you have a
secondary Google Voice number. What is up with that?

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Uptrenda
google is your portal to the web, your way to filter information, your point
for offline communication.. and online communication. soon to be the
infrastructure it runs on. thats just way too much access to personal
information for one company. just wow

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big_chungus
This is just an "I'm curious" question.

Can any one who uses lots of data detail for what it is used? I never use more
than 300 megs per month. Browsing the occasional web page is fun, but I've
always gotten most of my big files off-line before I went somewhere. I don't
do streaming media, so that's probably part of it, too.

~~~
Slippery_John
I listen to a LOT of podcasts (110 days of them since November 2015). I think
it's safe to say that most of them aren't optimized for streaming in the way
that, say, most streaming music is. So if I want to listen to something that I
didn't pre-download then I'm looking at some fairly hefty downloads. It
averages to about 1 meg / minute with most of the shows I listen to being 30+
minutes each. No on-the-fly bandwidth saving measures. I'm out walking for an
average of 2.5 hours a day, so if I downloaded all of that on my phone
connection I'd be using 150 meg / day. Then there's youtube, which if you
don't pay them $16/month doesn't let you download videos or stream audio only.
So that ends up eating a bunch.

Back when I was on Fi I used ~2-3 gig/month. Switched to an unlimited plan on
Tmobile (with throttling at 50g) and now I'm using 6-9 because I don't have to
worry about it.

Fi was the second hardest service from Google to give up though, because their
service is just better than competitors. Only Tmobile can remotely compare.
But their customer service is... Google. I might have even stayed, but I
switched to iPhone and Fi only gives half baked token support for iPhone.

~~~
big_chungus
That makes sense. I listen to lots of podcasts as well, and I've gotten stuck
once or twice with something still downloading and waiting to walk out the
door.

By the way, I'd recommend this youtube client:
[https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/)

Open-source, and allows downloading. Much better than the bloated default
client, too.

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asc123
Anyone have experience with this? I heard the service is atrocious on iPhones
at least.

~~~
vagab0nd
Anecdotal only, but in the 15 years that I've used cell phones, I was never
once unable to make a phone call when I had full signal bars. That is, until I
switched to Google Fi on my Pixel XL 2. After the switch, I was constantly
missing calls and messages. And needless to say, download speed was abysmal.
Tried customer support, swapping SIMs, resetting phone, and all that, to no
avail. Switched back to Verizon after a month and never looked back.

------
apapap
I need to switch from At&t to google Fi because of sim swapping.

------
leric
Including China? Really?

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exabrial
> Video may stream at DVD-quality (480p).

How do they manage that over TLS?

~~~
sp332
They throttle video so that the client switches to a lower bitrate version of
the video. You can still identify video streams even if they are encrypted, or
being Google they might just have a big list of IPs as Avery3R mentioned.

~~~
exabrial
Thanks.

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thorwasdfasdf
usmobile.com is much more cost effective. I can get an unlimited minutes/text
plan, plus 5GB/month for 25$ there, 30$ (with all the taxes and fees).

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garysahota93
I wish they had better support for iPhones...

------
rasengan
22GB unlimited and then slower after.

------
ehosca
Fi is a science fair project

------
Rainymood
How long before they kill this?

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justhw
I've been meaning to try Google Fi for a while but I'm sitting on the fence
too long. The fact that they could "sunset" Fi on a whim when they get bored
with it and lack of good customer service since it's not Adwords bothers me
enough not to try.

