Google Fi Is Now Even Better Than Ever – For Home and Abroad

When Google Fi (or Google Project Fi, as the original name) launched, it shook up the prepaid (and a little of the postpaid) cellular service space as it offered $20 for unlimited talk and text and data at $10 per 1GB. It wasn’t that pay scale alone that shook things up but the fact that Google Fi offered users that same rate for data in countries all over the world!

Google Fi Is Now Even Better Than Ever – For Home and Abroad

Link: Google Project Fi (if you sign-up and have your account for 30 days, we each will get $20 credit)

T-Mobile offers a plan for their customers that also gives international access as part of their plan. However, it was slower than speeds in the US (2G speeds) and people had to use T-Mobile as their regular carrier. If you were already a customer, no problem but it was not enough to swing some people from their regular carriers.

The beauty of Google Fi is that it could be turned on and off (suspended) and you were only ever paying for the data you used. You would always pay the $20 flat fee for each month you left the line active but that was it. For people that liked having a reliable data connection around the world (well, not for Rome), Google Fi was a great, cheaper alternative to carriers that charged big data fees.

Data-Only SIM Cards and iPhones/Samsung Devices

Plus, you could use a data-only SIM for things like your iPhone or Samsung phone so you did not have to actually use a Google phone (yes, you can use Google Fi with your iPhone!). You would not have the free texting (without using Hangouts) or the native phone call system but you could use the data anywhere to use VOIP services. This is what I did with both my iPhone and iPad and it worked beautifully!

The only major problem for many people was if they were using multiple gigabytes of data each month. $10 per gigabyte isn’t bad compared to other providers as an overage fee but it adds up quickly if you are chewing through it while traveling. The same was true if you were using other data-only SIM cards (which I had let family members use for their devices) as it was also $10 per gigabyte for what they used.

A New Cap on Data Fees

However, that is no longer the case! Google is now capping the fees at $60 for data each month (if you have a single line). That means the max you will pay for your line and any/all data SIM cards on the plan is $80 and that will give you unlimited data in the US and over 100 countries around the world!

Google has greatly improved their Fi speeds as well as I can now easily get over 10 Mpbs in all the countries that I visit (and even 30 in some countries!)which is really good!

If you have additional lines on your account (which would mean they other people are using Google phones with their own Google Fi-assigned number and the free phone calls/texts in the US), it is capped in the following manner:

• $60 for a single line
• $100 for 2 lines
• $120 for 3 lines
• $140 for 4 lines
• $160 for 5 lines
• $180 for 6 lines

Now, this is not including the data-only cards. If you have 10 of those (which is the limit) and only one phone line, your capped amount is $60.

Over 15GB per line, the data speeds may be lowered but will be free. And, that is per line which is pretty great!

Takeaway

Google Fi has really gone up in value for me and many others that like a dependable, cheap data source for our travels. Now, you can use your device anywhere in the world (where it works) without having to worry about racking up a huge data bill along the way.