Hacker News Reader

Comment by krzrak | Hacker News Reader

Sidenote: I checked the Google's Project Fi - damn, it's expensive. For $20/month you get unlimited calls and texts, but you have to pay extra $10 for every 1GB of data.

Here in Poland for $10 I get the same unlimited calls and texts plus 4GB of LTE included (and then you're limited to 1 Mbps - but you can take the $13 plan and get unlimited GBs too).

View on HN

If you think Project Fi is expensive, you will be shocked by the rates of other carriers. Fi is trying to disrupt phone carriers through cheap pricing and transparent billing.

I have been experimenting with Fi and I think it is good but has some significant drawbacks. I am about ready to cancel my Verizon service to go all in with Fi, but a major factor is the fact that I'm going back to school and will be counting pennies. Verizon's 3GB plan is attractively priced, but that significantly better service is still double what I pay on Fi in a typical month.

The Fi service is fine in metro Boston, but on a recent trip to parts of rural AZ I was without service for long stretches. Another downside with Fi is that I don't seem to be able to talk on the phone and get data service at the same time.

Non-simultaneous data and voice is, I believe, a symptom of a Sprint connection. TMobile should be able to handle both simultaneously.

Thanks, I had a suspicion that might be the case. Obviously if you're on wifi it works as well.

That's pretty good compared to other service providers. Also, if you pay for more data than you use, you get refunded whatever amount to didn't use e.g. I bought 4 GB of data but only used 1.2, so I get refunded $28.

The downside to Project Fi is that you need to buy a Nexus 5X to get in, and there's significantly less coverage than Verizon.

If it helps, currently if you buy the Nexus 5X from Project Fi, it is about $150 cheaper than retail (Google Store) value.

https://fi.google.com/about/phones/ - 16GB $199 / 32GB $249

Where I live, Fi is great. I'm on Wifi and only have to pay for the data I use. With AT&T it'd be $75+tax for calls/texts+5GB of data, and $15/GB if I go over. Where Fi would be $70+tax for 5GB data, and less if I use less data. US get's screwed when it comes to phone plans :/

Its pretty cheap by US standards.

You can get 1GB of 4G and unlimited 3G on Freedompop for $20, or unlimited everything (inc 4G) for about ~$70 on Sprint / T-Mobile.

That sounds good but they seem super sketchy. They want my address, email and IMEI before they'll even show me what plans they have? No thanks.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com