For years, it was a foregone conclusion about who you would get your wireless service from. It was the company that had the best services at your work or home, or for people in rural areas, there was less choice. And odds were, that you would be picking from one of the big 4 carriers. Things have changed in recent years with a lot more low-cost carriers and even players from other industries entering the fray for your mobile plan dollars. Spectrum came out with their plans a little bit ago promising fixed rates with no taxes or fees, now we have Google dipping it’s toe in the water. Google has long been a player in the mobile phone market as the owner of the Android operating system that makes up about 87% of the market share for phone operating systems world wide. Google released it’s Pixel line of mobile phones in 2016, and now is rounding out it’s mobile offerings with the GoogleFi wireless service.
Well actually, GoogleFi isn’t totally new. The service has been in development and then limited release since 2015. What GoogleFi is doing different is they are using multiple cellular networks to provide increased coverage over any single one. The coverage is provided over T-Mobile, Sprint and regional carrier U.S. Cellular networks which gives a much greater footprint than any one of those, and offers coverage to the vast majority of the country including the growing 5G market. They are also differentiating themselves with over 2 million Wi-Fi hotspots across the country which run across a VPN connection, keeping your data safe from prying eyes. but the coverage doesn’t just dry up at the borders of the US, they also provide coverage in and free calling to over 200 countries. For those who are part of the growing mobile workforce (and those who sit in their car and work while the kids are at soccer practice), all plans offer full speed device tethering, so you phone can act as a Wi-Fi hotspot for your phone or tablet. They also offer some great deals on phones with your plan. Of course all of their offerings on the website are Android based phones, and there are special deals for the Pixel devices, as you might expect to get a little home cooking. but they do offer a few phones free (with bill credits), which might be very appealing to some users.
The downside is that if you bring your own device (BYOD) then you are limited to the T-Mobile network and do not get the benefit of all 3 networks. That means iPhone users , and others who bring their own device, don’t get all of the benefits that others may get from the service. iPhone users also lose the use of the built-in iPhone voicemail and will need to use the Fi app to retrieve their messages, as well as losing the VPN functionality of the aforementioned 2 million google hotspots.
As a big plus for families, especially families on the android platform, GoogleFi includes the family features which allow you to manage and monitor just about everything that you would want to manage on your children’s phones. This allows you to lock out the device, manage what apps can be installed, view the phone’s location, and keep an eye on their activity.
There are 2 types of plans, Flexible and Unlimited. Flexible plans can also be set to cap out on charges, basically turning into an unlimited plan if you exceed $80 in data usage. Unlimited plans, like unlimited plans from other carriers, are capped at 22GB per month. After that your data will not get priority and you will have some decreased speed until the next billing cycle. But, they advertise that your video will come across at 480 resolution at that point, which isn’t too bad on a 5 inch screen. For a single line rates are $20/$35 per month for Flexible/Unlimited plans. That drops down when you add additional lines all the way to $16/$23 per line with 6 lines on a plan.
Overall I think this could be great deal for Android users, and a decent deal for iPhone users. The loss of so many features is tough in such a competitive market for wireless service. But if you love android or are ready to make a switch from iPhone, This could be a good move for you.
Make sure to check it out and get up to speed!
