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Comment by ram_rar | Hacker News Reader

Google Fi is expensive for individuals. Their initial premise was $20 base for unlimited text/phone and $10 / Gb. It was very naive of me to think that my avg phone bill would decrease a lot. But the data streaming adds up.

You are better off in a group plan (unlimited data) with friends on TMobile. it ll cost you lot less.

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> Google Fi is expensive for individuals. Their initial premise was $20 base for unlimited text/phone and $10 / Gb.

Pixel 3 user here. I pay $30/month on average.

What on Earth are you torrenting on your phone? I've never used more than 5 GB data in a month. Just wait till you're back on wifi before watching YouTube...

Completely agree. I work from home and I rarely user over 1GB. It's very cheap for me.

But Tmobile family plan costs you $30/month with unlimited data. I think it is crazy that we have to pay $10/ GB for data specially when I am traveling around the country with no wifi.

An individual tmobile plan that includes international support is $70 per month.

The cheapest plan (essentials) is $60 for the first line. The second line is $30.

Which $30 unlimited plan? The grandfathered one with a max of 60 minutes of voice you get through walmart?

I had a family plan through t-mobile and after years of getting more expensive per month (no enterprise discount, increasing number of taxes/fees, etc) I switched to google fi and halved my bill.

Some tips for those trying to minimize bandwidth: 1) tell google phones to backup pictures/videos on wifi 2) preload maps for any cities you visit more than monthly 3) get a podcast app (if you listen) that preloads them when on wifi 4) get youtube red ($10 a month) for no ads, downloadable youtube videos, and downloading your top 500 songs.

With the above, even when traveling quite a bit I average 1-2GB a month. I generally use nav every time I drive just to get the traffic info/warnings.

I've never used more than 5 GB data in a month

Good for you.

I'm on WiFi at home and at work, and I just checked my bill and I used 5.53GB last month, and my wife used 9.72GB. I don't consider either of us to be heavy mobile users, especially since we can't get cell service in our home.

Ha, I used 200 MB of LTE and 800 MB of WiFi in the last month. I have willfully pared down my phone's footprint, but I assume you must do frequent streaming on your phone and/or you have some apps really running amok?

For cost-sensitive people who are content with T-Mobile networks and open to MVNOs, I suggest looking at Mint Mobile. The best ongoing rates are had when you buy in bulk: $15/20/25 for 3/8/12 GB LTE per month, as a 12-month package. It also has unlimited voice/sms, and it throttles rather than charging extra when you exhaust your LTE quota.

Oh, and they also support T-Mobile's WiFi calling, so you can have phone service in your home without cell signal...

How's mint's coverage in the real world? I was checking out their map, but I never really trust those.

AFAICT, it is identical to what a T-Mobile subscriber would see, though I imagine as a Mint Mobile user, we are deprioritized compared to the current high-paying T-Mobile customers in a congested cell.

I use T-mobile now, so I suppose switching wouldn't be to much of an issue in terms of coverage. I'm currently grandfathered in on an old pay-as-you-go plan that gave 100 minutes a month (I don't talk on the phone much), unlimited texts, and "unlimited data" (5GB then basically nothing). However T-Mobile makes it increasingly hard to stay with that plan, like eliminating the ability to refresh your plan earlier than 30 days, and for the few times I use it as a phone the service is spotty-- full signal, data works fine, but it might take a few minutes for a call to connect, sometimes failing and requiring multiple attempts. Mint might be an improvement.

I was on an even older prepaid T-Mobile plan, and they stopped allowing the purchase of "data passes" entirely. I was also seeing call reliability problems in urban Southern California.

If you have a spare phone, I highly recommend a Mint trial. There is a 7-day starter pack, which gives you two SIMs and lets you test briefly with a temporary number and then reactivate on the second SIM if you wish to port in your existing number. But, I thought the $45 pack was so cheap that I used it for a longer 3-month trial, after which I was happy to keep it alive as my new main service.

You also have to think about whether you care to keep your old grandfathered plan, i.e. on a backup phone. I kept mine because I can keep it alive for $5/year if not using minutes. But, I imagine I may drop it some day if it cannot be relied on to actually place an emergency call...

Linux ISOs. What else do you torrent, sir???

Since I effectively have no data cap I use north of 40GB on my phone without trying. A lot is from tethering though.

I've been keeping an eye on GoogleFi for a while now because I really hate AT&T. Every time there's a GFi announcement on HN, I take another look.

It was more tempting when I traveled internationally more. But now I'm down to just a few trips a year, and I don't ever call home. So this GFi unlimited plan isn't cost-competitive with my AT&T plan when taxes are added.

Maybe next time. It seems to be a good fit for certain profiles, and people on HN who have that profile seem to really like it. But it doesn't seem ready for mass adoption yet. It's certainly not the "disruptor" we'd expect from SV.

I switched to Fi from ATT precisely because international was such a PITA. Fi just "works" as soon as you land and it picks up the towers, which is a huge relief from having to call some robo-operator and pay $30 for some super limited coverage.

My wife and I use ting which is also $10/GB and we have only once paid as much as our previous unlimited plan for a month. It is unusual for us to see a bill as high as $60.

A few years ago I switched from Ting to MintMobile. I get 8GB a month for $20 a month since I pay by the year. Haven't had any problems with them.

would you recommend MintMobile in the US? Seems almost to good to be true

Not OP, but absolutely. Nice website, great plans, and it just works(on tmobile).

I consistently had mobile monthly bills $30-$40 probably because my data usage was primarily in location with wifi. And whatever you don't use of that $10Gb gets rolled over to the next month which is not something TMobile will offer.

shrug I average $30/mo on Fi, my phone is almost always on wifi. YMMV

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