I remember when I travelled to the USA back in 2010 I figured that wifi was ubiquitous enough now that I probably wouldn’t have to worry about getting a data plan. Back then that was partly true, indeed I was able to do pretty much everything I needed to for the first two weeks before needing Internet on the go became something of a necessity. Thankfully that was easily fixed by getting a $70, prepaid plan from T-Mobile which had unlimited everything which was more than enough to cover the gap. Still that took a good few hours out of my day just to get that sorted and since then I’ve always wanted a universal mobile plan that didn’t cost me the Earth.
Today Google has announced just that.
Not to be confused with Google’s other similar endeavour Project Fi is a collaboration between Google and numerous cellular providers to give end users a single plan that will work for them across 120 countries. Fi enabled handsets, of which there are currently only one: the Nexus 6, are able to switch between wifi and a multitude of local cellular providers for calls, txts and, most important of all, data. This comes hand in hand with a bunch of other features like being able to check your voicemails through Google Hangouts as well as other nifty features like Google Voice. Suffice to say it sounds like a pretty terrific deal and, thankfully, remains so even when you include the pricing.
The base plan will set you back $20 which includes unlimited domestic calls (I’m assuming that means national), unlimited txts to anywhere and access to the wifi and cellular networks that are part of the service. From there you can add data onto your plan for the rate of $10 per GB which, whilst not exactly the cheapest plan around (What I currently get on Telstra for $95 would cost me $120 on Fi) does come with the added benefit of being charged in 100MB increments. So if you don’t use all your data cap by the end of the month you don’t get charged for it. The benefit here is, of course, that that data works across 120 countries than my current 1, something I would’ve made good use of back when I was travelling a lot for work.
Like many cool services however Fi will only be available to US residents to begin with as their coverage map doesn’t extend far past American border. This is most likely due to the first two providers they’ve partnered with, Sprint and T-Mobile, not having a presence elsewhere. However it looks pretty likely that Google will want to extend this partnership to carriers in other countries, mostly in the aims of reducing their underlying costs for providing data coverage overseas. The real kicker will be to see who they partner with in some countries as depending on who they choose the experience could be wildly different, something I’m sure they’re keen to avoid.
I don’t think I’d make the switch to Google Fi right now even if it was available, not at least until I had a few good reports on how their service compared to the other big providers. To be sure it’d definitely be something I’d like to have when I’m travelling especially now considering how much more I can get done on my phone compared to when I last spent a good chunk of time abroad. As my everytime provider though I’m not so sure as the features they’re currently offering aren’t enough to overcome the almost $30 price differential.
I’m sure that will change with time, however.
