I joined Project Fi in August of this year. Project Fi is essentially a prepaid phone service for which Google acts as an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). This is just a fancy term for a company which doesn’t own the cellular towers but merely purchases a bulk block of service from the carrier(s) and resells it.
In addition to Fi, I have another line with cell service on T-Mobile. I find this is pretty good so I joined more out of curiosity. The allure of the pay-as-you-go method of paying for an additional line was attractive. Project Fi only works with Nexus phones. I joined with my Nexus 6. Later I upgraded to a Nexus 6P ($50 off through 12/31/15). Last night I ported my phone away from Project Fi and back to Verizon. Not because Fi is terrible – but because it wasn’t compelling enough to keep me on the service.
Here’s the good and the not so good (meh) that I found in my four months using Project Fi. Your situation and needs will be different than mine. Take my observations, mix them with your own good judgement and make a decision on whether you think Fi would be a good choice for you as a cellular provider.
The Good
- Simple to setup – Project Fi ships you a SIM card with a paper clip (to open the door of your device which holds the SIM card). Almost everything about the setup is done on-screen and on your device. This experience left me feeling that Project Fi’s most innovative feature was the ease with which I could setup the phone and eventually port a number into Fi. Virtually all configuration happens using the Fi App. No trips to a phone store while I waited for someone to pay their bill using a roll of pennies. No tedious attempts by a salesman to sell me a case, insurance, and glass protector. I only made one call to customer service and that was to have them reset the Fi App so I could port my number into Fi. Easy simple and great overall experience: A+
- Fair billing – Project Fi charges $20 per month for service (voice and SMS) plus $10 per GB of data. You pick a plan ahead of time (I chose 3 GB/mo) and pay at the start of the month. If you have any data remaining at the end of the month you get a credit on your next month’s bill. Super easy. Yes, better deals exist on a per GB basis. Project Fi clearly is not designed with the heavy data user in mind. However it does offer super fair pricing that’s easy to understand: A+
The Meh
- One of the two big features of Project Fi is that calls route automatically over one of two carriers. Those carriers are either T-Mobile (good) or Sprint (meh). Using an app (FiSpy) from the Google Play Store I could view which carrier Project Fi was automatically switching me to. Mostly I seemed to get switched to relatively sluggish Sprint – even when my other phone (an iPhone on T-Mobile) showed there was plenty of stronger (and faster) signal with T-Mobile. Overall the automatic switching between carriers did not live up to the hype or improve my usage experience. I expected to always be on a solid, high-speed, high-quality signal. I wasn’t. I was often on 3G Sprint even when my other phone showed LTE T-Mobile available in the area. It wasn’t a bad experience, just overhyped: Meh.
- The other big feature of Project Fi is that calls can be routed over WiFi as much as possible. YAWN. Hello Project Fi, T-Mobile called and they want their WiFi calling back. This is not a new feature to the world of cellular. T-Mobile has been offering WiFi calling on their phones for years. Still, Project Fi has gotten a lot of good reviews for their use of WiFi calling. Oddly enough I didn’t find WiFi calling was used in many (almost all) cases. When it worked (signified by the appearance of “the key” aka VPN symbol in the notification area), WiFi calling quality was pretty good. It just didn’t work enough of the time when it seemed like it should have. I rate this a big (overhyped): Meh.
- WiFi is pretty terrible at powering calls when you’re in a moving car. My town offers WiFi in limited public spaces. WiFi is also included in my cable Internet plan. Trying to use either (or both) from a moving car is not realistic. I could see my phone attempting to connect to WiFi, but the connection took longer to setup than the time that I was within range of the specific WiFi. The dream of WiFi phones which seamlessly handoff between one access point to another is pretty much a dream except for controlled locations such as an office or college campuses: Meh.
- Project Fi uses a variation of Google Voice to allow you to receive both calls and SMS via your Gmail inbox. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t yet allow users with paid Google Apps to register their Google Voice number for Project Fi. This means Google Apps users such as myself are forced to use a secondary Gmail.com email address if we want to register for Fi. My Google account linked to Google Play was my primary Google Apps account and my Fi based SMS was on a secondary screen of Google Hangouts using my secondary Gmail account. Confused? Me too. The integration of Google Voice with Fi is slick. Unless you are a Google Apps users, then it’s awkward. Another Meh.
Observations About Google Fi
I didn’t find anything terrible about Fi. It just doesn’t live up to the hype, much of which I had read in reviews, gushing about how much a user could save on data because Fi would primarily use WiFi as much as possible. That never happened for me. My data use was about the same on Fi as it would be on any other carrier (roughly 3 GB per month). Your mileage may vary. If you’re going to have a contest about how much you can stay on WiFi, there are plenty of free alternatives – Google Hangouts, Skype – which will let you make free WiFi calls to and from your device all day long.
So if Fi isn’t that bad, and if parts of it are actually pretty good – why did I port my number away from Project Fi?
I went back to Verizon, where for $15/mo ($40 – $25 bring your own device credit) I can use my Nexus 6P and join a shared family data plan that two members of my family are using. Ultimately Fi was costing me more money (roughly $50/mo) than what a good family plan with some data to share would ($15/mo with bring your own device).
Here comes the strange part. Despite my experience (more Meh than Good) I can still recommend Project Fi to someone who fits the profile of an ideal user:
- Virtually always use less than 5 GB of data – and some months may use virtually no data
- Uses a compatible Nexus Android device (Fi won’t work with iPhone or non-Nexus devices)
- Long periods of time within reliable WiFi
- Have a NON-Google Apps Gmail account as their primary account
- No option of joining a family shared data plan
- Live in an area where Sprint and T-Mobile have strong LTE signal
Project Fi is a compelling option for anyone fitting the above profile. Unfortunately, I don’t feel it is flexible enough for those with Google Apps accounts or those in areas where they can’t take advantage of the two built-in carriers (T-Mobile and Sprint) because they are outside of a strong coverage area.
Give me Google Fi with cheaper data, integrated Google Apps accounts, all 4 carriers on a SIM, and I’d be back in a flash.