So my Google Fi just arrived this morning. I’ve just installed it on my iPhone. I’m gonna tell you all about it: this is my Google Fi Review on an iPhone.
Alright, the easy stuff.Google Fi is $20/mo.That’s unlimited calls and unlimited texts if you are in the US.It’s $10 for every 1GB of data, and you only pay for the data that you use.Up to $60. So if you use 6GB, which would mean $60, you don’t get billed for any data after that.
So your whole plan will cap $80. They do have a cap at 15GB of data in a month, but that’s a lot of data.
Now did it work on iPhone? It worked perfectly! Google Fi was only supported on certain phones up until November 2018, but they just opened it to iPhone, I installed it on my iPhone X and it worked without any trouble.
How does this compare to an AT&T or a T-Mobile plan? Here’s a chart that I just came up with, on the prices today as of January 2019. There are a lot of variables here, if you’re in a family plan then you might get a better deal, that really depends on how much data you use, but what I really want to talk about is roaming.
The really magical think about Google Fi is you can roam in over 170 countries at no extra cost.
It’s actually quicker and easier just to list the countries where Google Fi is not supported, so I’m just gonna write those over here: and if you aren’t traveling to any of those countries, you can just rely on Google Fi. There’s a real argument here, if you travel a lot, that you should switch to Fi…. and it might be a better option for you.
So I’ll tell you a little bit my thought process on this… I currently live in Costa Rica, and I’m actually considering switching to Google Fi… permanently; replacing my local carrier for this.
But I’ll get into that in a second.
Even if you live in the US and you have to travel maybe,
three or four times a year abroad; there’s a really good case to Google Fi being a cheaper and more efficient option. Let me give an example.
Say you live in the US and you have a SIM card that’s $50/mo, and you travel maybe 3-4 times per year. When you’re traveling abroad, depending on the country, say that you purchase a new SIM,
just for that occasion. That price may vary a lot.
So if you’re in Costa Rica for example, you can get a plan for maybe $25-$30 for the full month.
That’s obviously very reasonable, but for example in Japan… there’s no cheap alternative… The best alternative is to buy these little Wi-Fi boxes. That was 7,000 yen which makes up to around $70; that gave me a unlimited Wi-Fi. wherever I was. Obviously no phone service, but you can get along with WiFi. Let’s land on an average of $50 for every country you visit to get a SIM and be connected on your trip.
So you’re spending $50 bucks per month in the US that’s $600 plus tax, then maybe $150 say $200 extra for three or four trips a year, so that comes up to $800.
Now $800 divided by 12 months that’s $66, which could be enough to get your basic Google plan for $20. 4GB of data for $40, that’s $60. And then you still have some extra spare change for calls.
Now there’s a catch here, if you’re abroad your phone calls may cost you money. Phone calls abroad, either receiving calls or making calls if you’re outside the US, they’re $0.20/minute.
Which… yeah it’s expensive. Now one thing I forgot to mention is that on iPhone we are limited on a feature called Wi-Fi calling. If you’re on Wi-Fi, Google will automatically route your call over that WiFi and you don’t have to pay extra for that call. That’s something that iPhone does not support.
But if you’re in a support an Android phone, then you’re fine, you don’t have to worry about these extra charges.
But do we really call that much? In my case, most of the calls I make are to my family, or my close friends, and I usually call them over FaceTime or WhatsApp. So I don’t really have to make old-school traditional calls.So there’s a case depending on your travel habits to switch to Google Fi.
And you have all the advantages of having the same phone number, not having to switch SIMs when you fly…. And digging even deeper there’s even a case… for you ditching your local carrier.
And, that will depend a lot on the country but actually done this math. In Costa Rica it’s $25/mo for a full on local plan, which is actually very cheap and compare that to Europe, for example; so you’ll have to balance that out, and you also need to balance your local calls.
With Google Fi you’ll be paying extra for every local or international call you make or receive. But, again, I know that $25 is a very
cheap plan compared to world rates.
So for $50 a month, I think there’s a much better case towards switching to Google Fi.