Who out there is ready to sign up for wireless service provided by Google? As of today, Project Fi is official – that’s the name of Google’s wireless MVNO that will use a combination of WiFi, Sprint, and T-Mobile to deliver wireless service in the US and around the world, with plans starting as low as $30/month.
Here’s how it works:
- Unlimited domestic talk and text, plus unlimited international text, is $20/month.
- Data is $10/GB – so $10 for 1GB, $20 for 2GB, etc.
- Google will refund you for data you don’t use – and it will even prorate overages. So, for example, say you signed up for a 1GB monthly plan, but you end up using 1.25GB – instead of throttling you like T-Mobile would, Google will keep your data fast, but only charge you an extra $2.50. If you signed up for a 3GB plan but only use 2GB, you will be refunded $10 on your next month’s bill. This is truly a “pay only for what you use” model.
- That said, unlimited plans do not exist on Project Fi. Family plans don’t, either.
- International voice calling in the US, or over WiFi from anywhere in the world, is charged by the minute at standard Google Voice rates. (In other words, it’s cheap.)
- Calls back to the US while in another country over WiFi are free.
- Calls while roaming internationally on another carrier’s network are $0.20/minute (just like T-Mobile currently charges).
- International data in 120 different countries is the same price as in the US – $10/GB – except it’s throttled down to 3G speeds. However, Google is promising speeds of 256kbps, instead of T-Mobile’s 128kbps.
- While in the US, service will seamlessly transition between T-Mobile and Sprint, and your phone will also connect to any available open WiFi network, as long as you keep WiFi on. To protect your privacy while connecting to open networks, Google is providing free VPN service that will also kick in automatically.
Ready to sign up? It’s not quite so simple. Service is only available on the Google Nexus 6 by Motorola, and Google is only taking sign ups for invites right now, so it isn’t available to everyone just yet. Still, this looks very intriguing – to sign up for an invite, and get more details, hit up the source link below.
[Google]
