What is Project Fi?
Many of you may have heard of Google's ‘Project Fi’, but what is it?
Project Fi is a scheme for Nexus phones (Currently only the 5X, 6 and 6P [although some people have claimed to make it work on the 5]), made by Google, which has more than 1 million Wi-Fi hotspots in major cities. The connection is secure – all data over these networks is encrypted, and Google thinks that this will help to keep data bills low, without losing fast speeds.
As it stands, you have to request an invite to access Project Fi (Does that remind you of a Chinese startup company, perhaps?), but it mostly works in the east of the United States, at the moment.
It costs $20 per month for the Fi services, with an extra $10 charge per GB of data wanted. This is the only data plan, but it would be cool to see some more for long-time customers. The Fi services alone give you unlimited domestic calls and texts, unlimited international texts, Wi-Fi hotspot usage, and coverage in over 120 countries. There is no contract required, so you can leave, for free, with a month’s notice (although if you buy your nexus through Fi, you must pay off the phone).
The innovative thing about the Project Fi data plan is the fact that any unused data gives you money back on your bill – So if you pay for 5GB of data and only use 1.2GB, you’ll save $38 from a data bill which would normally be $50! This is a long way away from the likes of Sprint and T-Mobile (Who, interestingly, are Fi’s network providers)
Coverage for data costs the same all around the world (But it’s limited to 256kb/s – 3G). International calls cost 20 cents per minute, too.
When on Wi-Fi, calls and texts are sent via the Wi-Fi, but when you get out of range of the network, Google claims that Fi ‘seamlessly transfers between Wi-Fi and cell networks’, meaning that if you start a call on Wi-Fi, then change to a mobile network, you can carry on the call, without noticing that anything ever happened!
The service also offers Hangouts usage on any device, by connecting your Fi number to any device with hangouts installed.
The Project Fi app also offers a simple UI and gives you easy control of your services. If you need help, the support team is available every day, all day.
Source: | Google |
