It starts in about a week, and the required Nexus 6 phone is on sale until Friday at Amazon for “only” $350. It does not sound like any other phone option is likely in the near future. $10/month for unlimited calling & texting, and $10/GB for data, with any unused data credited back the following month. 120 countries are included in that unlimited texting and data, BTW, which makes this a great option for travelers.
I’m surprised there doesn’t seem to be any mention of it here yet.
[1]: http://fi.google.com
At $10/GB for cell data I’d be bankrupted in less than a week. T-Mobile Unlimited Data, with a sneaky tethering solution they don’t yet seem to have countermeasures for yet.
The next iterations of the Nexus 5 and 6 should be coming out shortly. I would hold off for further discounts/snagging the new model. I know folks who have Google Fi. It works well, but tends to lose reception (need to be restarted) in tunnels.
If you happen to travel internationally a lot and worry about roaming, T-Mobile simple is great, especially since you can keep your number and never need to swap out SIM cards.
My interest is that 1) it could use my Google Voice number, and 2) I travel a fair amount, including to out-of-the-way places, so having a reasonable international phone instead of cobbling something together each time (will this be a place I can get a local sim card easily? does it make more sense to add something to my plan for the month, but then hopefully remember to change it back? should I just be careful and eat the international roaming costs when I have to incur them?) would be awesome.
But if I don’t like it, I don’t want to be stuck with 1) a phone I otherwise don’t need, and 2) the Google Voice number being canceled along with the plan. I have the best GV number EVAR, and do not want to lose it!
No, my GV number is very easy to remember, both as a number and as a phrase, and it matches my (personalized, not vanity) license plate. If you knew what it was, and knew me, you’d know it’s perfect for me and not something I’ll ever outgrow. In fact, now that I think about it, it’s such a fundamental expression of self that I would be willing to have it as a tattoo. That’s saying something, for someone like me who’s a fan of mutability and change over permanence!
About 15 years ago, the state contacted everyone to say that they were running out of new random plate designations, so everyone was going to get new 7-digit randomized plates unless we specifically asked to keep our current randomized plates or else chose either personalized or vanity plates. They had a special deal going at the time which is no longer available: if we chose personalized, which meant first letters and then numbers, no more than 6 (or maybe 7) characters total with a space in between, then we had a one-time charge of $16 and that was it, it would be considered a normal plate from then on instead of incurring the annual exorbitant fee of a vanity plate. So that’s why I have a personalized plate!
That reminds me (I don’t know how, chalk it up to ADHD) that all the stores and restaurants in my company (about 250) all have phone numbers that end with 8688. We still have the same guy who setup our PBXes and phone switches how maintains them. I’ll have to ask him if the founder wanted it that way, he chose it, or if it’s some kind of infinite improbability drive style coincidence.
