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Comment by dforrestwilson | Hacker News Reader

I am also using and loving Google Fi so far. No manipulative billing practices designed to obscure the true cost. Reasonable metered data prices.

The only downside is having to use a Motorola phone. They seem to always break within 1.5 years of purchase.

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I'm quite excited to try it. Unfortunately (or fortunately) i'm on T-Mobile, with a no contract $30/m Unlimited text/data plan (very few minutes), and that's just really hard to beat.

Note that this plan might not be available anymore.. not sure really, but i know i often get flack for being on this plan from tmo. It clearly isn't making them enough money, but my god, i love it.

It's 100 minutes a month if I'm not mistaken. Can't say for sure if the plan still exists, but it's almost impossible to find any advertising regarding it. You have to specifically ask for it like those quesadillas at Chipotle. I was happy with it for a couple years but switched to google Fi when I got my Nexus 6P and I'm perfectly happy with it.

Yep, 100 minutes per month with unlimited text+data (the first 5GB at 4G speeds). You can find the details here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/other-prepaid-plans . I activated online and have been using it for over a year now, been pretty pleased. I've had to use the Personal Hotspot feature on my iPhone 6+ when my internet has been out and I've went through multiple GB in one sitting without any issues or additional billing, which has been nice.

As my tmo plan may suggest, i rarely use minutes. Fi only offers a minutes oriented plan, and i hate that pricing. Feels like i would be wasting money.

Oh, question for you if you don't mind: Since you were on Tmo, can you compare the reception/coverage for Fi vs Tmo? In theory Fi would have better reception due to more networks, but i'm not really sure how much Tmo and Sprint differ in network size/locations. Thoughts?

I'm in USA-WA and the hills/mountains really cause reception issues. So the reception coverage is important to me. (Nothing beats Verizon, unfortunately)

Total Wireless offers a plan with unlimited talk and text and 5GB of data for $35 on Verizon's network. It is throttled at 5Mbps, but if you use little enough data to make Fi worthwhile I don't think that will be an issue for you.

Well, i'm more concerned about the data than talk or text. Most of the calls i make are done via Google on my laptop (free minutes), so i almost never need minutes on my phone. It's not the data price of Fi that bothers me, it's the flat $20 charge for Unlimited Talk/Text that i don't want to pay.

If they gave me $5 or $10/m for reduced talk, i'd be in heaven

Probably best summed up with "Nothing beats Verizon, unfortunately". I primarily use WiFi calling as I live in a gigantic concrete building facing the lake so I get literally zero cellular reception in my apartment.

The plan still exists, you just have to jump through hoops to find it: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/other-prepaid-plans

Had to go to prepaid plans > Individual plan > Talk and text only Link underneath (even though the plan is the opposite, good labeling).

(Screengrab of how I got to it in case they're doing cookie/referer checks and the direct url doesn't work: http://paste.click/VSgPVD )

You can stick an activated Fi SIM in an iPhone if you want. It's undocumented, but it works fine. The only thing I lost was smooth switching between cellular and wifi, but otherwise I've been quite happy with it.

And iMessage on your root phone number, right?

yep, on my email address & Fi number.

Do you mean if you do this you will have to do the manual switch every time?

And may I ask which iPhone you have? I have an iPhone 5.

Calls get dropped if you're on wifi and walk outside. iPhone 6.

Why not use one of the newer phones? I've had the 6p (Huawei) since release, and it's pretty nice (although I wish I'd gotten 5x (LG) and waited a while to save money.) The 6p has been aggressively discounted the past few weeks, and I imagine the 5x is in the same boat.

$10 per gigabyte is not "reasonable metered data prices" or "the true cost". In practice, the price per gigabyte of data delivered by any network operator in any given region past the first byte is magnitudes cheaper than the first byte, by the nature of coverage.

Someone using, say, 100GB on any network operator is not using $1000 worth of electricity / tower uptime costs / etc. They might, in the most ludicrously expensive regulatory environments, be costing a hundredth that.

? Neither the Nexus 5X (LG) nor the Nexus 6P (Huawei) are made by Motorola.

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