I ordered a Nexus 5X today. I’m switching to Project Fi, away from Republic Wireless. I was a somewhat happy Republic customer for about 2 years. Here’s my take on Republic:
Pro:
– really cheap: I’m paying $18/month for Sprint LTE and roaming 3G on Verizon/USCellular
– I absolutely loved my 2013 Moto X: perfect size, nice features. Although it’s battery life is now down to only about 14 hours. 🙁
Con:
– very slow software updates. My Moto X is still stuck on KitKat 4.4 with no updates for over a year
– terrible voice quality on wi-fi calls: 400ms latency was unbearable
– zero encryption on wi-fi calls
– not so great voice quality on cell calls — but that’s what I’ve come to expect from Sprint MVNOs
– their newer phones are less interesting than the original Moto X
With my new phone+carrier, I predict I’ll feel like this:
Con
– I’ll miss the included 3G roaming
– I’ll pay more per month (about $25)
– bigger phone
Pro:
– better call quality (I hope)
– faster software updates
– network encryption
– an interesting new phone
P.S. Project Fi has a twitter feed, but not a Google+ page? Really?
me too.. expecting mine any day now. Excited to see what google does with Project Fi and integrations with the rest of the Google eco system, although not disillusioned they may abandon the project all together if they get bored
Joe Barneson ha! I was thinking the same thing, but decided not to put that in my “Con” list for Fi because I thought it was too cynical. 🙂
Isn’t your wifi calling latency just shitty because you are on a problematic ISP / modem / router?
ISP overview: http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/results/bufferbloat
Henk Poley Give me a little credit, man! I’ve reproduced the problem on about 10 different wi-fi networks. I do not experience the same latency with other VOIP apps, like G+ Hangout, Skype, FaceTime, and others.
http://chrisdolan.net/talk/2013/12/04/measuring-wifi-calling-latency/
Excellent 🙂
Chris Dolan Hate to see you go, but greatly appreciate the feedback.
Odd about your WiFi Calling quality. I personally have had to convince some people I’m not calling from a landline when using WiFi. Would be super interested in having you help us troubleshoot and possibly zero-in on what was causing that. Could be one of dozens of factors.
On the software updates – we feel you brother. Lollipop particularly stings. We were early with 5.0 but it got pulled from market for being so buggy. Then Stagefright happened – nobody saw that coming – and we had to drop everything to get that emergency patch out – your security is important! Now we’re back to working on 5.1 full-blast, but only just received the latest build from Moto a week and a half ago. Luckily – we are moving to a point where we will be freed up from 3rd party OS upgrade processes.
Anywho – great having you as a member. Let us know what you think of Fi. And, let us know if you’d be willing to help us troubleshoot for the benefit of other members down the line! Thanks Chris!
Ok