First thought; YAY!
I love Google. I love their products, I love their philosophy. I love that most of their projects aren't designed to own the market and are instead set up to push the market in directions they think the industry (industries) should go.
For example, they don't want to push out cable internet providers by making Google Fiber... instead they just want to demonstrate that somebody can provide fairly inexpensive fiber based internet with amazingly fast speeds. If Google Fiber was available near me, I'd sign up for it in a hearbeat.
So in a nutshell, what's Project Fi? It's a cell service that primarily uses WiFi for everything. The phone will actively search out a strong WiFi signal that it can use and if it's providing a stronger connection and/or faster speed than the cellular signal available will switch over to it. It will use the WiFi signal for data of course, but it will also use it for voice and texts. The data over a WiFi network would be encrypted (using a VPN) system so it would be just as 'secure' as a cellular connection.
But better than that is what it does if there isn't a WiFi signal. It will then search out for the strongest/fastest cellular signal between both Sprint and T-Mobile's systems!
Here's what currently happens. I have my phone and there is crap cellular signal but a good strong WiFi signal. My data will switch over to WiFi and I'll be able to download like a greased demon. But my voice calls will suck or simply be unavailable. Or... I have my phone and there is crap/no WiFi signal and slow but strong cellular signal. My data will be slow as molasses, but my voice calls will be good and solid. With Project Fi, I'll get the best of all worlds. It will find the best signal between Spring, T-Mobile, and any available WiFi, and I'll use that.
So this amazing service should cost the same or more than my current cellular bill right? Oh no.. no it costs FAR less. Project Fi's billing works like this. You pay $20 for access. That access includes unlimited voice and text. It also includes some international stuff, but I could care less about that so I didn't look into specifics. After you have access, you pick your data usage by gigabyte. It's $10 per gigabyte. Now compared to some other plans that could be expensive for data rates, but remember thats only for cellular data and the phone will be actively searching for WiFi connections. WiFi data is free.
I checked my phone for the past few months for data usage. For the last full month I've used 4.7 GB of data. But only 288 MB of that was on the cellular system. All the rest was WiFi. I've had this phone since early February and those numbers are fairly consistent... Even when I was in Chicago, I used under 1 GB of cellular data.
And if you don't use all of that data? They give you a billing credit for the amount unused. So let's say I average 300 MB of cellular data and am paying $10 for 1 GB each month. I'll get a $7 credit fot the unused amount. Now that's all wonderful if my usage stays the same... but what if I go over? Well I get bumped up to the next data tier. No 'overage' fees, I simply pay $20 for 2 GB and get a credit for all the data that I don't use. If I don't foresee me staying at that 1 GB plus usage, I can simply take it back down to the 1 GB tier the next month (and I'll still get that credit for all the data I bought but didn't use at the 2 GB tier!
Contracts? They don't need no stinking contracts. If I"m unhappy with the service I simply cancel it. No fees, no mess.
There will of course be taxes and fees, but that's far harder to predict. Let's assume it will be 10% (a high guess). That would put my monthly bill at $20 + $10 + $3 = $33. That would be the high water mark as each month I should get a credit of about $7. Monthly bill should be around $26.
That sounds amazing. Let's compare that to what I currently have. I've been a Sprint customer for over a decade now. At the minimum, the signal strength would be what I currently have. It should be BETTER as if there's a weak Sprint signal and a strong T-Mobile signal, I'll slip over to T-Mobile (or WiFi if it's available). Data speeds should be the same or faster.
My current plan is a little harder to compare as I'm on a family plan with Mom. I pay just over $150 for everything each month. It's an older plan so it has a bucket of minutes (1500 I think) for the two of us, unlimited texts and unlimited data. Their current series of family plans reverse that with unlimited voice and texts, with a bucket of data. For voice, neither Mom nor I use a lot of minutes so the 'unlimited' is really no value to me.
Now plans don't work this way, but let's say we split that family plan in half, I'm paying about $75 a month currently. That would be a significant savings per month.
Now for the downsides. First, you have to have a phone. The plan doesn't include any 'discoutned' phones. In fact you HAVE to have the Nexus 6 phone as it's the only handset that can utlize the WiFi/Spring/T-Mobile switching. I already have one as my old Samsung Galaxy S4 died back in February. As I wasn't up for a new contract yet, I had to pay full retail price. So long as I'm fully out of the contract with Sprint, I can leave without any ETF fees. That's me. For mom, if she wanted to join me over at Project Fi, would have to get a Nexus 6. It would cost her $649. She could get onto a payment plan (which is what a lot of carriers are doing now anyway) and it would add about $30 to each month's bill.
But even at $33 + $30, that's $63. Still a discount from 'her' $75. If she left the service before she paid off the phone there still wouldn't be an ETF but she would have to pay off the remainder of her phone.
I've been talking to Mom about her phone and I think she's ready to get a new one... just not a Nexus 6. She doesn't want something that big. More than likely she'll just stay with Sprint. The current Sprint plans are $60 a month without a phone discount. She could buy her new phone outright, she could go the monthly payment plan for her phone (about $30 a month) or she could lease a phone for like $20 a month. Unfortunately as I write this, Sprint's site is down and I can't see the phones available or what a 'current' customer would pay. Her plan would have unlimited voice, text, and data along with a new phone for about $88 a month ($80 plus 10% for fees). Add in my $33 and we'd be paying about $121 each month. If nothing else, that's a savings of about $30 a month.
If I want to get creative with her plan, she could move to a different carrier and probably save money. She uses even less data than me so she should easily fit into a 1 GB data plan.
If I really think about it, I'm fairly sure I'm still under a contract. I believe that the contract was for 2 years... the upgrade period was only 18 months and that was up on April 1st. So I'm probably still under contract for another 5 months. So if I do this, I'll probably have to pay $350. I'll have to weight that out, but right now I' think that would be worth it. It wouldn't only be paying to cancel Sprint Service, it would be cutting my last tie to ANY service. The Nexus 6 is designed to work on ALL major carriers, so I could change it to Project Fi with the swap of a sim card. I could return to Sprint by putting my old card back into the phone. Or I could go to a new carrier (T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon...) by getting one of their sim cards. I like having options... and $350 to do this now seems like a good way to go.
I've already sent in my request for an invitation. I won't have to make up my mind until that invitation arrives.
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