I am having a hard time finding a cheap cell phone plan that fits my use case.
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Reliable talking and texting. (I have freedompop now and this is where it fails. It's just not reliable. It requires 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi just to make calls!)
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I hate that FreedomPop seems sort of "baked in" to my phone in ways I frankly don't understand. "FreedomPop" appears on the splash screen when the phone starts up, and I'd imagine that upgrading Android (which I'd love to do!) will break FreedomPop so I've been too nervous about that to do it. I don't want that noise with my new plan.
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Preferably unlimited talking and texting so I don't have to worry about it. (A high limit is also fine).
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I am a very inconsistent user of data. Most months I probably use less than 500 MB because I'm near wi-fi most of the time. But then 2-3 months a year I blow right through that because I'm traveling and surf reddit on the train or bus. So a good pay-as-you-go for data would be awesome.
Frankly, 3 and 4 are easy for me to compare myself online. But reliability in (1) and unadvertised "implementation details" in (2) are nearly impossible to figure out from the website.
Republic Wireless looks like it achieves (3) perfectly and (4) acceptably (looks like you have to manually adjust your plan, which I don't like but I can live with). Is it reliable? I see this in the FAQ:
Republic Wireless phones work on both WiFi and cellular networks, depending on the plan you choose. Republic Wireless offers smartphones like any other in all the important ways. When you don’t have access to WiFi, everything still works great over the nationwide cellular network.
This sounds good, but they don't clarify whether "nationwide cellular network" means 3G/4G like on FreedomPop or if just a regular signal is sufficient.
July 15, 2018 at 12:55PM
