Google Project Fi

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Google Project Fi

Sir Bobert Fishbone: Jan 16, 2006; Beebort

THF13 posted:

Went ~2 years ago with Fi to Japan and it worked excellently. Landed, turned on the phone and got a "Welcome to Japan!" message from google and had service with good speeds everywhere I went. I think wi-fi calling might have been disabled in Japan but I'm not completely sure.

I think the international coverage of Fi is one of the better reasons to get it, at least as a plan A. If there are issues with a specific country and their available carriers Google's partnered with you can always get a local prepaid SIM. But the majority of the time where it just works is extremely convenient.

In the last year I've used it in Chile, Argentina, Iceland, Canada, the Faroe Islands, and Latvia, and it's been completely seamless as soon as I land. The quality of international coverage is probably the biggest reason I'm staying on Fi at this point.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2018 03:15

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 22:51

Sir Bobert Fishbone: Jan 16, 2006; Beebort

Fitzy Fitz posted:

Hello, I come to this thread at my darkest hour

Google Fi's customer service loving sucks. I'm trying to transfer my number from a smaller carrier (Straight Talk). My account number with Straight Talk is the IMEI of the phone that I used to use with them, which was originally an AT&T phone. So when I try to transfer my number to Fi, it automatically registers it as an AT&T number and sends the request to them instead of Straight Talk. I cannot get Fi's customer support to even acknowledge this as a possibility, so for several days now I've been stuck in a loop of telling them this is happening, them telling me the transfer is functioning properly, and then me contacting them again a day later to tell them that no it's not working (they won't even humor you if it hasn't been 24 hours). I've contacted Straight Talk and they've confirmed that they haven't received the transfer request.

Does anyone have any ideas? This is starting to be not worth the trouble.

I know there tend to be halfway competent support staff roaming around the Fi subreddit, if you're looking for another support channel.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2019 21:45

Sir Bobert Fishbone: Jan 16, 2006; Beebort

Spaseman posted:

This deal on the Pixel 3 XL makes me really tempted to switch to Google Fi. Are people generally pretty happy with Fi? I don't use a lot of wireless data so the price looks really good to me but Google can be pretty bad with their support for their projects and services so it makes me a bit worried.

No issues here. My wife and I switched from Verizon a couple years ago and besides the whole data janitoring aspect of things, it's been flawless. Even overseas.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2019 01:45

Sir Bobert Fishbone: Jan 16, 2006; Beebort

Honestly the fact that it just works whenever I go abroad, and I have the same phone number, and am paying the same prices I would be at home anyway, is the coolest and goodest thing about Fi. If I wanted local rates I'd just pop a local SIM into my (currently empty) physical SIM slot.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2019 22:20

Sir Bobert Fishbone: Jan 16, 2006; Beebort

OldSenileGuy posted:

I fear by the time my metered plan kicked back in I'd be back to going out in the world and using data again.

lol you're good

# ¿ Apr 14, 2020 02:49

Sir Bobert Fishbone: Jan 16, 2006; Beebort

I never used it, but it's super weird that they're apparently getting rid of Group Repay:

# ¿ Jul 31, 2020 18:49

Sir Bobert Fishbone: Jan 16, 2006; Beebort

American McGay posted:

Fi is still way cheaper than basically any other provider for me, but I've also never aggressively shopped around and use very little data since I'm usually always on wifi. I think my bill is about $23 per month.

I'm this close to switching my wife and I over to Visible. It'd be just about a wash financially, and I wouldn't have to compulsively track my data usage all the time. We'd lose out on international data, but I'm not optimistic we'll be leaving the country anytime soon.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2020 17:33

Sir Bobert Fishbone: Jan 16, 2006; Beebort

FogHelmut posted:

lmao 5g

I will never need this speed, just give me better reception areas and indoors.

I don't understand how this is a selling point for Fi when all it means is that I'll be spending $10/gig even faster

# ¿ Oct 29, 2020 19:16

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 22:51

Sir Bobert Fishbone: Jan 16, 2006; Beebort

azurite posted:

I would say Fi was a little rocky for the first year or so, but that was back when the Nexus 5X was the new hotness? Eventually, I felt like they worked most of the kinks out, and I haven't had to gently caress with Signal Spy in a long time. Granted, I spent most of my time in the greater Philadelphia area, so coverage is pretty good for both T-Mo and Sprint (may they rip in peace).

Also, Fi's been amazing abroad. That includes Canada, the Dominican Republic, and Japan. The only place where it got a little weird is when I was hanging out on the Canada/US border, but that makes sense.

That said, their pricing is not as competitive anymore if you do any kind of streaming, and that can include something as low-bandwidth as audio. I was considering moving to Mint before Covid hit and my Fi bill consequently went down.

Yeah at this point Fi's not a great deal unless you're always in range of WiFi (or love janitoring your data/caching things before you leave the house), or you're doing a ton of international travel. Fi's value has dropped significantly for us since the demise of international travel, but it's still worth it as long as my wife and I are able to work from home.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2021 03:29

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Google Project Fi