Got your Project Fi Invite? Thinking about getting one?

Did a little more checking around. T-Mobile has the prepaid data-only On Demand Pass 1GB for $10/mo. That bumps the savings to $480/yr. Sweet!

Crashdamage said:

I've been trying to figure out how to make this work for us and I think I've got it.

We're on a family plan 2 lines for $80/mo unlimited + 1GB data per line. My wife has a Nexus 6 and I use a Nexus 5. So she can move to Fi but I can't. Obviosly when she changes over we lose the family plan. She can get by just fine on roughly 1GB or $30 on Fi. But my bill goes to up to $50 without the family plan. $30 + $50 = $80 so no savings.

She is out and about a lot for her work and runs her business with her phone. She needs ultra-reliable phone service, which is one reason to switch her N6 to Fi. But...I'm sorta semi-retired and home most of the time with screaming fast Google Fiber WiFi. if I start making all calls over VOIP via Hangouts and WiFi I don't need phone service much. Still, I want to have phone and data for when I'm out but $50/mo or $600/yr is a little much for something used so little.

Then I checked T-Mobile for data-only plans. They have 1GB data-only for $20/mo. Well, 1GB will do fine, I can make a lotta calls with that and I won't use data much otherwise, I just want to have it if I need it mostly. So I called T-Mobile and asked if they could put a Nexus 5 on data-only. First girl I talked said she couldn't code it into the system because it wasn't a tablet, but she transferred me to a guy who said no problem at all, just call when ready.

So, that will make it $30 + $20 = $50 a nice savings of $360/yr.

Click to expand...

Tmobile has a (pseudo data only plan) for $30 a month, 100min voice, 5GB data

kate said:

Are you referring to the $10 on demand data pass listed here? That says it's only good for a week, so the $20 monthly option would be cheaper

Still nice to see how much you two can save using Project Fi.

Click to expand...

Its under the Tmobile prepaid plans,

I was talking about the monthly deal listed on this page (scroll down):

http://prepaid-phones.T-Mobile.com/prepaid-phone/Mobile-Broadband-SIM-ONLY-KIT-Prepaid

This is the $20/mo 1GB deal:

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-internet

I called T-Mobile to find out if the $10 deal is a real deal.

Bad news...it is not available as stand-alone data-only deal. It's a tack-on for existing phone service. Bummer. I was afraid it was too good to be true.

Good news is two things.

1. Even though it's gonna be $20 for 1GB it does include the Data Stash rollover. Phone plans have a 3G minimum to qualify for Data Stash.

2. Data SIM card is $15 but T-Mobile is sending one free preloaded with 200mb of free data so I can test my VOIP calling idea.

Nice of T-Mobile to help me test a method to send them less money, but no $10 deal still sucks.

El Presidente said:

http://www.androidcentral.com/comparing-project-fi-pricing-other-no-contract-carriers

There's quite a good run down of Project Fi and a table comparing it to some of the other carriers.

Click to expand...

That's a handy little chart. Nice to know I'm on a fairly low cost plan compared to whats being offered in my area

The Nexus 5 appears to be capable on working on Fi. It meets all the obvious criteria. It's compatible with T-Mobile and Sprint, has dual-band WiFi w/ac, Android 5.1 and the hardware should be up to the challenge.

The N5 has been out a while, but it would still be nice to see it get access to Project Fi. And that would instantly add a lot of potential customers to the Fi user base.

Fi is almost here! My wife's Nexus 6 auto-installed a utility called Google Connectivity Services. And the Project Fi app is up to the Play store, which of course I dutifully installed.

But...still no invitation. I'm sure her application had to be an early one. Plus, we're in Kansas City, the first Google Fiber town (and we have GF + TV), hometown of Sprint, and with very good T-Mobile coverage. I'm even in the Google Fiber Trusted Testers. Gotta think she will be one of the first invited.

But not yet...

Crashdamage said:

Fi is almost here! My wife's Nexus 6 auto-installed a utility called Google Connectivity Services. And the Project Fi app is up to the Play store, which of course I dutifully installed.

But...still no invitation.

Click to expand...

Same here,the app is doing nothing more than a sign-in prompt loop ATM.
I suppose once invites/SIM Cards hit the mailbox,that'll change.

Uh-oh...may not be able to switch my wife's Nexus 6 to Fi after all. I expected Fi to effectively work as a replacement for T-Mobile service. But from the Fi help page Switching from Google Voice to Project Fi:

https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6159953?hl=en

"Features that aren’t available on Project Fi
You can’t make or receive calls or access voicemail using Google Talk, Google Voice apps, or Obihai devices."

Key words: You can't make or receive calls...using...Google Voice apps...

Problem is, to make Fi work as smoothly and easily as T-Mobile does now, she absolutely must be able to use the GV app.

It works like this: the GV app is set to make all calls through GV by default. VoiceChoice 2.0 intercepts outgoing calls and dials out, automatically choosing to use either her cell number or GV, depending on the group the contact she is calling is in. Business contacts see her business number, friends and family see her cell number. All calls to her GV number are forwarded to her cell number. Unanswered calls to her cell number are forwarded to GV so GV can handle all voicemail.

This works perfectly. Routing is automatic. She doesn't have to do anything special or remember anything, she just uses the phone normally and the phone and GV deals with which phone number is used for outgoing calls, voicemail is centralized in one place and she even gets text transcriptions of voicemail. But if she can't use the GV app she will lose all that super-handy functionality.

But it's not exactly clear that all is lost. The help page is written for those with a GV number on the account to be used for Fi, and what happens with your GV number, settings, etc when switching to Fi. In her case, her GV number is her business number, associated with a separate Google account setup just for business. There is no GV number on her personal account to be used for Fi. I don't know what difference that makes, if any, as far as keeping her present setup.

Bottom line is I'm not certain how this will work out. So far there's no way to ask Fi people a question. I know I'm not doing anything to risk her business communication, so she stay on T-Mobile until I can figure this out.

I still haven't seen any info about using Fi with Google Voice when they are separate accounts. Everything I've seen, including the article you were kind enough to link, talks about using Fi with the same account that has your GV number. That's not what I intend to do.

I need to know if Fi will function as a straight-up replacement for T-Mobile postpaid service. Which means, will it have conditional call forwarding? Will it work with the GV app and VoiceChoice 2.0 the way T-Mobile does?

I'm ready and waiting for Fi. Apparently, a few people have gotten invitations and are up and running. I requested an invitation on 4/22 and the confirmation email promised an invitation within 30 days. That leaves about 2 weeks for Google to keep their word.

I've also read that once you join Project Fi & choose to leave sometime down the road,you cannot get your GV number back.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/switching-to-project-fi-youre-hanging-up-on-google-voice/

Should I receive an invite, I'll post the Terms of Use/etc....
It's looking more & more like Project Fi will be a pass for now,contrary to my initial impressions,until more is known,bugs are ironed out.

Seems to me like you can avoid all this by using a separate account for GV?

@marctronixx:
I have some questions for you:

1. Does Fi have conditional call forwarding?

2. Do you have a Google Voice number?

3. If so, I know it has to be in a different account than Fi. Given that, can you use Fi with the Google Voice app?

Thanks for your help.

@marctronixx:
Thanks for the reply.

I need to setup Fi a little differently. Not how you describe or how Google assumes in their FAQs and help articles, by porting a GV number to Fi, etc. To put it simply, I'm trying to figure out if I can use Fi as a direct replacement for T-Mobile postpaid service. To make it work like I need it to I'll have to port the T-Mobile number to Fi and shut down the the T-Mobile account. I don't wanna do that until I know it will work. If you're curious about the details I explained it further in posts #62 & 64 in this thread.

I'm stuck in a circle - I can't find a way to ask Google questions about Fi until I activate Fi, but I don't want to activate Fi, port the number and cancel T-Mobile until I know Fi will work, but I can't ask Google questions about Fi until I activate Fi but...and round and round...

So, is there any way I can ask someone at Google about this? By phone, email, Google Group, anything, anyway?