
Mobile Carrier To Sell Service for $19/mo; Android Handsets For $99 Until Nov 27 - aaronbrethorst
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/07/disruptive-mobile-carrier-republic-wireless-to-sell-handsets-for-99-until-november-27/
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cpr
As @jkincaid points out, this is a Bandwidth.com company.

Bandwidth.com has built up a whole country-wide internet backbone system of
their own to carry VOIP traffic (they carry Google Voice, for example), with
lots of connectivity to the local area terminal points (I forget the jargon
for that).

We're really happy with Phonebooth.com (another Bandwidth initiative), who
provide unlimited VOIP service (with a full virtual business PBX) to North
America at $20/user/month. (And who apparently don't charge for calls to
Europe (at least Ireland), as I found out recently.) It's perfect for our
little 4-man distributed company; we each have a VOIP phone on our desks and
can pretend we're all in the same office with extensions, etc.

Bandwidth.com seems like a company to watch...

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jkincaid
RepublicWireless.com just went live with all the details. Here's the catch
(they're quite transparent about it):

The phone monitors how much data you're sending over Wifi vs cellular, and if
you're using a disproportionate amount of cell data compared to the rest of
the community, they can boot you.

"The best way to know how you're doing is by checking out your Cellular Usage
Index (CUI). If it's too high, we'll let you know and give you tips to bring
it down. You have plenty of time. But meanwhile, you still pay a flat fee of
$19/month no matter what."

~~~
derefr
> if you're using a disproportionate amount of cell data compared to the rest
> of the community, they can boot you.

Sounds like a simple prisoner's dilemma, with the "selfish" incentive driving
people to lower the total consumption. Of course, the prisoner's dilemma only
has the optima it does because of a lack of shared information; people _can_
cooperate when they can strategize in some out-of-band way.

For this service, the "cooperation" strategy would entail everyone conspiring
to drive the average _up_ , so that the service provides more to everyone
without anyone in particular having a "disproportionate" usage.

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colinsidoti
At $19/month for unlimited, they're probably operating at a loss unless they
can build up a significant customer base.

I imagine we'll see an incentive program soon..."Refer 5 friends and this
month's bill is free." If you refer the 5 friends you talk to most, the
company will save much more than $19.

VoIP is cool, but traditional phone calls and text messages are not always
ideal. I think innovation on the communication channels themselves would go a
long way for this company. Think <http://voxer.com>

Facebook is in a particularly good position to pull this off correctly. They
already have a "cool" factor, and if they could come up with a communication
tool that people really like, so much that you're jealous your friend has it
but you don't, the people will come. Blackberry pulled this off for years with
BBM, but lost its "cool" somewhat recently.

~~~
gcb
> At $19/month for unlimited, they're probably operating at a loss unless they
> can build up a significant customer base.

that's a pretty bold statement. Care to elaborate?

Seems pretty expensive when i pay exactly that to AT&T to have 6mbps at my
home. we're talking about 1mbps maximum here right?

~~~
colinsidoti
Unlimited Voice and SMS to other carriers is expensive. Look at Twilio's
pricing or Skype's pricing, or any other voip provider. Text and calling to
your own network is essentially free, but off network gets expensive. Granted,
I don't know how big of a cut these voip providers take, but I can't imagine
it's that high.

Put it together with usage data, you quickly get over $19:
[http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/u-s-
teen-m...](http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/u-s-teen-mobile-
report-calling-yesterday-texting-today-using-apps-tomorrow/)

Edit: Just want to point out, I'm not saying this is a bad bet to make. They
can attract a ton of consumers with a super low cost, and if those consumers
do most of their communication in-network, eventually they'll be in the green.

~~~
jkincaid
I don't know the financial breakdown, but it's worth noting that Bandwidth.com
— the company behind Republic Wireless — actually runs the VoIP backbone that
powers Twilio, Google Voice, and other services. So I'd imagine they get a
better rate :)

~~~
colinsidoti
Very interesting, I had no idea. A little more digging brings me here:
<http://bandwidth.com/about/read/verizonAgreement.html>

"Bandwidth.com, Inc., a privately held telecommunications company in Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina, announced today that it has signed a commercial
deal with the Verizon wireline companies under which the parties agree to
terminate each other's VoIP traffic at a rate of $0.0007 per minute."

This is for landlines, but still a much lower number than I was expecting to
see.

~~~
dlikhten
Remember, this is Verizon selling off bandwidth it does not need since it's
unused. To V its like free money.

~~~
jallmann
There's still a carrying cost to that bandwidth inventory, so it's not
completely free.

------
devicenull
This isn't terribly amazing. I paid $130 for my Android phone, and pay
$25/month through Virgin Mobile.

~~~
peterwwillis
I have that too. The speed sucks dick but it's cheap.

Thoughts:

    
    
      1. I really hope it knows to just use cell while driving instead of trying to connect to random passing APs.
      2. Am I the only person in America constantly surrounded by secured/non-free Wifi?
      3. Why wouldn't I just pay less for my phone and $10 more a month for Virgin Mobile?

~~~
LilValleyBigEgo
Virgin's coverage is ass.

~~~
peterwwillis
Agreed. So imagine what this other company's coverage will be like - and they
aren't owned by Sprint like Virgin Mobile US is. (incidentally, if you update
your PRL on your Virgin phone to a Sprint list you get better service...)

~~~
memset
How would I update my PRL? And what would I update it to? I had no idea that
these caveats existed on Sprint's network, I had just (naviely?) assumed all
Sprint-based service was "the same"

~~~
peterwwillis
If you google usually you can find a guide for your phone on HTC or other
developer/modder/hacker forums for smartphones. It involves getting codes
specific to your phone and using some software and a USB data cable to upload
new settings to the phone. It's similar to firmware flashing.

Oh yeah, and they really really don't like you to do it because you're
basically using parts of the network they don't want you to use. So whatever
you do, don't tell Sprint customer service.

------
jonah
I wonder if they have any kind of soft/hard limits on how many minutes / how
much data you can actually consume over the cellular network.

Theoretically, couldn't one could not join WiFi any networks and use Sprint
most or all the time?

~~~
dvdhsu
They'll probably try to make it so that WiFi must always be on. Then again,
it'll have to be locked on the device, so it wouldn't be very hard to get pass
it once the phone was rooted (the devices will run Android [according to the
article]).

Then, they would probably check to see who was using the majority of
minutes/data on Sprint, and then have a talk with them (or throttle their
data).

I'm curious as to what they would do with people who sign up and don't live in
cities. If you live in rural areas, it's doubtful you'll have WiFi the
majority of places you go. They would probably end up losing money on rural
subscribers, then try to make profits from urban subscribers.

There might be a problem with a strategy like that though, because it doesn't
seem their profit margins would be too high. I'm not sure how much it costs
them to buy data in bulk from Sprint, but doing unlimited data for $19 isn't
going to result in amazing profit margins. I'm also assuming that they won't
be buying voice minutes, because if these devices can use multiple networks,
the only way to keep a single phone number would be using VoIP. Of course,
there's no way they would be buying text messages, because text messages can
easily be sent over e-mail.

~~~
LilValleyBigEgo
> I'm curious as to what they would do with people who sign up and don't live
> in cities.

I'm guessing they'll offer it in one or two cities, call it a revolution, fail
to generate revenue and fade quietly into tax write-off oblivion.

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tryitnow
I hope this is just the beginning of a larger trend. I will check them out and
I definitely wish them the best of luck. This is a market that desperately
needs disruption.

Does anyone know of any comparable deals like this?

~~~
LilValleyBigEgo
Well they're not really disrupting anything, they're reselling Sprint, so
they're actually _helping_ Big Carrier.

~~~
yuhong
Yea, they just tackled on Wi-Fi onto it. Thinking about it, I wonder if (maybe
together with Tucows etc.) they could lobby the FCC and Congress to solve the
problem, for example. Of course, it would not be that simple, but...

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GigabyteCoin
I think I am going to get one just for the few trips I make to the USA every
year (Canadian). I have an address in the USA so I doubt it would be a
problem.

This could be just the thing I have been looking for to check my emails and
servers (religiously) at a decent cost compared to hotel and internet cafe
prices. Not to mention the added convenience value. Some places charge almost
$19/day for short term access so paying $140/year would be a steal.

~~~
GigabyteCoin
The idea I had originally went out the door when I read about their "Cellular
Usage Index" aka "their solution to their freeloader problem".

Basically if you use more than "$19 worth" of cellular service per month...
they boot you off of their networks.

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nikcub
This is the future, and it is time that it happen. I was talking about this to
a friend on the weekend - that cell phone companies are enjoying the last
years of being able to confuse consumers to profit.

Deciding on a cell phone provider should be no different to internet providers
- pay $20, $30 a month for a connection (unlimited) and that is that.

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TheClassic
Any idea how much bandwidth this sort of voip uses? I'm wondering if it'll
affect PC online FPS gaming or netflix streaming.

~~~
reacocard
From <http://republicwireless.com/how>:

    
    
      I have DSL at home.  Will it work on that or will I have to upgrade to
      something faster?
    
      You need about 80kbps both ways to hold a call. The more bandwidth the better
      for improved call quality. Don’t forget that streaming video or downloading
      large files all use bandwidth, so your mileage may vary if you are trying to
      make or receive calls and watch Netflix at the same time.
    

Sounds like it's more likely that your gaming or Netflix would adversely
affect the phone than the other way around, though a router with QoS should
fix that easily enough.

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toisanji
the monthly deal sounds great, but I'd like to know what phones we are allowed
to use on the service. Is it going to be a low end barely useable phone or a
nice smart phone?

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gcb
ha! an LG phone. no thanks.

still interested on the plan if they provide an android image I can use with
their wifi network.

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LilValleyBigEgo
That phone is the LG Optimus.

