Google Debuts 'Project Fi' Wireless Service in Partnership With Sprint, T-Mobile

typeadam · Apr 23, 2015

Too many people fixed on pricing and who's on board. I think if this was to go live nationwide and be offered beyond the Nexus 6, there would be more options for us to see. Like other pricing tiers or availability on the unlocked iPhone.. Who knows.
The video is confusing but from what got out of it I think it's a great idea and I'd be in.

FloatingBones · Apr 23, 2015

Would use, but only with a VPN

I'm curious if Google would allow one to use this service through a VPN -- severely limiting their access to know anything about what hosts I'm connecting to, DNS lookups, etc.

What would be the value proposition for Google if they couldn't track all that info?

lobbyist · Apr 23, 2015

lordvic said:
this is macrumours. An echo chamber for apple. Truth and facts are irrelevant here. Just blind hate.

Lol

C DM · Apr 23, 2015

uid15 said:
Who would you choose to trust to be ethical and respect your data and privacy out of Apple and Google? (Clue: it's not Google).

Why would you trust any one of them any more or less. They all treat you as a product they can use, to think otherwise is to basically to just deny reality.

uid15 · Apr 23, 2015

C DM said:
Why would you trust any one of them any more or less. They all treat you as a product they can use, to think otherwise is to basically to just deny reality.

Because Apple are more inclined to be trusted than a company who's motto is "Don't be evil", and yet is CONSTANTLY under investigation for carrying out underhand practices.

Evidently you don't understand the way in which Apple are passionate about their products, passionate about LISTENING to and helping their customers (and they have actual, REAL people who work at Applecare who you can speak to - polite, INFORMED people, who are able to know a LOT about the product they support, since the product has evolved and matured for long enough to have that tech support info become detailed enough to deal with customer issues). What does Google have? A history of hobby projects and "kewl" experiments that keep their employees busy for 6 months, and they then drop them, and move onto the next imminent failure, like someone with ADHD.

C DM · Apr 23, 2015

uid15 said:
Because Apple are more inclined to be trusted than a company who's motto is "Don't be evil", and yet is CONSTANTLY under investigation for carrying out underhand practices.

Evidently you don't understand the way in which Apple are passionate about their products, passionate about LISTENING to and helping their customers (and they have actual, REAL people who work at Applecare who you can speak to - polite, INFORMED people, who are able to know a LOT about the product they support, since the product has evolved and matured for long enough to have that tech support info become detailed enough to deal with customer issues). What does Google have? A history of hobby projects and "kewl" experiments that keep their employees busy for 6 months, and they then drop them, and move onto the next imminent failure, like someone with ADHD.

And it still doesn't change who we are as the consumers to any of those companies.

But I certainly get that admiration and the like can be somewhat (if not quite a bit) blinding.

As someone put it fairly well earlier in the thread:

spectrumfox said:
Truth.

If Apple came up with this idea (think iFi or Apple Fi), we'd never hear the end of how absolutely genius it is, and how Apple is revolutionizing the mobile industry.

TroyBoy30 · Apr 23, 2015

uid15 said:
Who would you choose to trust to be ethical and respect your data and privacy out of Apple and Google? (Clue: it's not Google).

neither

MACelmore · Apr 23, 2015

You people are funny. How can you fault a company for trying to shake things up? Yes, they're a direct competitor of your beloved Apple, but this project effects Apple in no way (unless Apple is stubborn and doesn't jump on board when it inevitably goes live for all devices).

I have T-Mobile, pay for unlimited data, and because of streaming music I use between 6-8 GBs per month. Obviously, this service is not for me. But I can see how it would benefit some people. If Google can get it so that the phone intelligently chooses the fastest option with no downtime noticeable by the user, and doesn't absolutely destroy battery life, then WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING? Doesn't it make more sense to say "hm, I can see there being a need for this"?

Some people will pay less. Verizon and ATT will eventually have to change their pricing structure to compete (same thing happened when T-Mobile first introduced the Un-Carrier plan). People will be using less data since the phone will switch to wi-fi if it's on the approved list. Like seriously... how can you critique a bold effort of innovation??????

Small White Car · Apr 23, 2015

smirking said:
Seriously? If that's such a burden to you then just open it and don't think twice. You'll end up paying what you pay and if you simply don't use up as much as you think, you'll get some change back. How oppressive is that?

To an extent I understand what you're saying. You'd rather have a fixed rate instead of having to devote some of your attention to the menial task of monitoring your hour to hour usage but how you go from that to seeing the ability to get money back if you don't use something... you lost me there.

There are three ways to pay for data:

1) Unlimited

2) Pre-set packages

3) Pay as you go

I have absolutely no interest in #3. It's what AOL was in the 90s. It's what my cell phone minutes were before iPhones. It's what my text plan was before iMessage came out and shook everything up. All of them eventually changed.

I'm fine with #1 or #2 but I have no desire to do anything like #3 anymore. I know I'm not alone since pretty much everything that starts out that way eventually transitions to either #1 or #2. (See my previous examples.)

I wonder how long this one will last before they change it.

C DM · Apr 23, 2015

Small White Car said:
There are three ways to pay for data:

1) Unlimited

2) Pre-set packages

3) Pay as you go

I have absolutely no interest in #3. It's what AOL was in the 90s. It's what my cell phone minutes were before iPhones. It's what my text plan was before iMessage came out and shook everything up. All of them eventually changed.

I'm fine with #1 or #2 but I have no desire to do anything like #3 anymore. I know I'm not alone since pretty much everything that starts out that way eventually transitions to either #1 or #2. (See my previous examples.)

I wonder how long this one will last before they change it.

Weren't minutes and messages and all that more of #2 before where people got packages that they paid for and then used up from the buckets those packages provided, and if they didn't use up all they paid for they usually lost what remained (short of some rollover promotions basically).

Small White Car · Apr 23, 2015

C DM said:
Weren't minutes and messages and all that more of #2 before where people got packages that they paid for and then used up from the buckets those packages provided, and if they didn't use up all they paid for they usually lost what remained (short of some rollover promotions basically).

They were both 2 and 3.

For example, I know a lot of people had 'x number of text messages' plans. But I always had a 'pay per text' plan. They eventually both disappeared but for awhile there it was up to you which way you wanted to do it.

uid15 · Apr 23, 2015

C DM said:
And it still doesn't change who we are as the consumers to any of those companies.

But I certainly get that admiration and the like can be somewhat (if not quite a bit) blinding.

As someone put it fairly well earlier in the thread:

Way to condescend someone, superb job. Okay, you don't know me, so thanks for the judgment on how my thought patterns work - I'll be sure to dismiss them as ridiculous.

C DM · Apr 23, 2015

uid15 said:
Way to condescend someone, superb job. Okay, you don't know me, so thanks for the judgment on how my thought patterns work - I'll be sure to dismiss them as ridiculous.

All of those were fairly generic observations that are fairly common. I guess I can't stop someone from taking them personally, but that's not what they were pointing out there. And you are certainly free to ignore or dismiss them or anything else to that effect, but that also doesn't change the reality of it all.

uid15 · Apr 23, 2015

C DM said:
All of those were fairly generic observations that are fairly common. I guess I can't stop someone from taking them personally, but that's not what they were pointing out there. And you are certainly free to ignore or dismiss them or anything else to that effect, but that also doesn't change the reality of it all.

Please take the time to enjoy your day. We care about your experience.

jdawgnoonan · Apr 23, 2015

C DM said:
And now all the usual Google FUD is going to keep on coming up to put it all down just because it's anything Google-related (just as it happens with anything Facebook-related). Because other companies aren't gathering our data and haven't been doing it for ages. And because it's irrelevant what the specifics of any of this are, it's enough just to focus on the "Google" (or "Facebook" or something similar) keyword.

I don't feel that way about Google, but I do feel that way about Facebook. Google provides tools that honestly have a lot of value; I am not sure that Facebook does offer value in any major way.

----------

This has the potential to be a game changer; hopefully they can get the AT&T and Verizon networks in the mix . I doubt AT&T or Verizon would want to be part of this, but legally they might not have a choice.

DavidTheExpert · Apr 23, 2015

MacBH928 said:
What did you replace Gmail with? There are only like 4 other companies that offer emails services and they all snoop on your emails.

There are plenty of free email hosts which do not have their email service tied into an unrelated service that you use daily and nets them billions of dollars.

C DM · Apr 23, 2015

DavidTheExpert said:
There are plenty of free email hosts which do not have their email service tied into an unrelated service that you use daily and nets them billions of dollars.

And they basically get nothing at all from providing the email service that costs then something to create and run?

smirking · Apr 26, 2015

Small White Car said:
There are three ways to pay for data:

1) Unlimited

2) Pre-set packages

3) Pay as you go

Yes, but #1 doesn't truly exist and #2 ends up being blurred with #3 when you go over how much data your plan allows.

Pay at you go works very well for me. I'm not typical. I work out of my house so I don't need mobile data very often, but when I do, I need a healthy amount so a basic 500Mb a month plan is plenty for me on most months and when I need 4Gb for a given month, Verizon lets me bump up my plan to that much for that month and I do that.

I don't want a set plan if it means I'm going to have to pay at the 2Gb rate if I'm not even when I'm not going to come remotely close to it in a lot of months. I'd feel differently if they'll let me buy at a 2Gb rate and refund me the difference on my light usage months though. Why do you think that's a bad thing?

s2mikey · Apr 26, 2015

MACelmore said:
You people are funny. How can you fault a company for trying to shake things up? Yes, they're a direct competitor of your beloved Apple, but this project effects Apple in no way (unless Apple is stubborn and doesn't jump on board when it inevitably goes live for all devices).

I have T-Mobile, pay for unlimited data, and because of streaming music I use between 6-8 GBs per month. Obviously, this service is not for me. But I can see how it would benefit some people. If Google can get it so that the phone intelligently chooses the fastest option with no downtime noticeable by the user, and doesn't absolutely destroy battery life, then WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING? Doesn't it make more sense to say "hm, I can see there being a need for this"?

Some people will pay less. Verizon and ATT will eventually have to change their pricing structure to compete (same thing happened when T-Mobile first introduced the Un-Carrier plan). People will be using less data since the phone will switch to wi-fi if it's on the approved list. Like seriously... how can you critique a bold effort of innovation??????

You are correct. Ultimately, competition and innovation causes prices to drop and quality to go up. That would benefit US which is fine with me. So, yeah, what's everyone all worked up about? Probably because Apple didn't come up with the idea.

Xiroteus · Apr 26, 2015

DavidTheExpert said:
Not interested.

If I wanted Google to know my every movement and minute detail about my life I would still be logged into Google+ and Gmail and Youtube and every other one of their countless services and have an Android phone and store all my sensitive documents in Google Drive.

That was a close one, I do not use Google drive.

Small White Car · Apr 26, 2015

smirking said:
Why do you think that's a bad thing?

Why do you think that just because I'm not interested in something that makes it a bad thing?

smirking · Apr 26, 2015

Small White Car said:
Why do you think that just because I'm not interested in something that makes it a bad thing?

I didn't mean that you thought it was bad period, but I'm just not getting why the possibility of getting a refund back is such a burden to you. I can understand not wanting to deal with data calculations... I live that way too. When I need data, I buy way more than I think I need so I don't have to waste time doing math, but I'd be happy to get whatever I didn't use refunded back even if it's at a partial rate of what I paid.

Esoom · Apr 26, 2015

I applaud Google for trying something different, have applied for an invite, may have to buy a nexus 6 and give it a try.

Will pick up a used n 6 on swappa

Tiger8 · Apr 28, 2015

LordVic said:
it willlikely fail for other reason

The service ONLY works with the Nexus 6 device.

For now. There are plans to add other phones , and I wouldn't imagine it being impossible; Republic Wireless has been modifying lower and mid level phones (Moto G, Moto X) to do the same thing, so I wouldn't be surprised if the next version of Android will turn on this feature in other phones.

Icaras · Apr 30, 2015

I'd love Apple to follow suit and create their own carrier service as well.

Google Debuts 'Project Fi' Wireless Service in Partnership With Sprint, T-Mobile

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