Saw an old Slickdeals post - $49 for a Moto phone with 3 months of service on Google Fi.
Sounded like a good deal so went over to look at Google Fi plans. Twenty bucks per month just to get unlimited talk+text, but zero data? Plus $10 per GB of data? I am amazed anyone signs up with Google Fi.
At one time there were some unique features that made it worthwhile to some. But I think the pricing needs an overhaul.
The main draw is the international features. You can get the same data rate in many countries. I've used it before and it works really well. That still applies. Overseas texting is free. I have Fi but pause it when I am not using it. You can pause for 90 days at a time and not pay anything.
Fi was also unique in that it has 3 networks sprint, tmobile and us cellular that it can dynamically jump between. But now tmo and sprint have merged that reduces it to 2.
Fi has esim for pixels which was a big draw for many but now that more are opening up to esim that isn't really an advantage any more either.
The other thing is the ability to get data only sims on the plan so you can use one in your tablet, give one for the kids to use and they can have google voice etc. It just uses the same data rate.
There is also a point where they switch you to unlimited so once you hit 12gb for the group it becomes unlimited so you have overage protection. For a group it is probably better value than for singles.
And they have had some crazy deals on phones in the past such as buy a pixel and get the cost back in travel gift cards. But those are probably not going to happen again.
If they dropped the unlimited talk and text down to $10 I'd probably use them as my main carrier
Also, with Google Fi: There is, in addition to seamless movement between 3(soon 2) networks, there is seamless transition to Wi-Fi networks for calling and/or data, which saves on data use and provides additional coverage. The Wi-Fi feature is also fully encrypted useing a VPN, and I believe everything now done on fully compatible Fi phones is encrypted with always on VPN. Also, the $10 per GB cost is a bit misleading in that one only pays for what one uses, so if one uses 500 mbps in one month, one pays $25, and if one uses only 200 mbps, it's $22 for that month. Also, 3 phones, for example on Fi costs $17 a month each, and they can share data.
Thanks! Very helpful info.
I was going to comment on this if no one else did. I only ever discussed in detail with one person who was on GFi, but for him the way data worked was the main draw due to his usage varying widely month to month, with the access to both T-Mobile and US Cellular a close second.