Google is charging a significant markup over T-Mobile's existing rates ($30/month for 5Gb vs $70/month through Gooogle.) So Fi is really only interesting for people doing significant international roaming.
T-Mobile site says 1 GB of 4G data with unlimited talk and text for $50 a month.
5 gigs of 4G data is $70
If you scroll down, there's:
$30 per month — Unlimited web and text with 100 minutes talk 100 minutes talk | Unlimited text | First 5GB at up to 4G speeds
I'm considering switch from that plan to Google Fi for Canada data.
There are some cheaper pay-as-you-go plans, but those are actually Walmart's plans using T-Mobile's towers—similar to what Google is doing here.
* T-Mobile customer service is inconsistent in messaging on the phone, via Facebook, stores
* As a H1B visa holder I am, according to TMO, not able to get a postpaid plan
* Prepaid plan does not work outside of the US
* Prepaid plan has issues receiving short codes from Uber/Bank of America and possibly others - I've spent 8+ hours trying to get it resolved and just ended up giving up.
* I currently use Cricket, due to the 20GB max, but the network is so incredibly slow that it's almost pointless. In NYC I often get at most 100kb/s downstream, when on LTE; that's just no good.
* Spam calls to my Cricket number, and they are unable to do anything about the multiple calls I receive a day
* I use Google Voice already, and it's incredible - except for international texting which they have crappy support for.
* Google Voice has issues with short codes, kinda like TMO prepaid.
Assuming the latter two has been solved with Project Fi + I can get proper network speeds + they filter out spam + automatic transcripts of voicemails (latter two being Google Voice features), then I'm a fan. Can't wait to get it for my Nexus 6.
-citation: I confounded and run a U.S. MVNO.
What? I'm on a TN and I have a postpaid plan and device payment plan. Your visa status doesn't really affect your phone plan eligibility.
However, H1B holders are people having recently arrived to the US, and therefore with 0 credit history. This is what impacts the capability to get a postpaid plan, but after a few months to build it up there should be no problem.
Personally, I find it ridiculous. Having money in the bank as well as a good salary, and not being able to sign up for a 30$ monthly plan; or applying for a credit card and getting either rejected or one with a 200$ credit limit.
AT&T will let you sign up for a post-paid without a credit history. I didn't want to provide a SSN (even though I have one), so they let me pay an $800 deposit fee - was worth it to avoid the personal information exposure.
The credit card thing is strange - I got a $20,000 one with wells fargo the month after I moved down to the united states in 1996 - on a $50,000 salary working desktop support. I was quite honestly a little shocked - but just went with it.