Republic Wireless: $19 unlimited voice, text and data on November 8th

[SAWYER]

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3492376


I dont have high expectations for this at all

 

[Trader05]

you get what you pay for

 

[pm]

Based on this article from TechCrunch:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/31/re...arrier-that-will-cut-your-phone-bill-in-half/

o The service will use what it’s calling “Hybrid Calling” — your phone will rely primarily on Wifi, whenever it’s available. And it will fall back on cell networks when you aren’t connected to Wifi.
o Users will not have to manually switch between Wifi and cellular — the phone will figure it out automatically
o The service will require users to get a new phone. I’m unclear on whether there will be multiple models available initially, but the phone runs on Android. New phones are required because the Hybrid Calling relies on both hardware and software
o The first cellular network that’s available as the fallback will be Sprint. The company is either planning, or already in the process of, signing other carriers onboard as well
o The phone will have one phone number (no swapping between numbers for VoIP/cellular)
You’ll be able to send both calls and texts via Wifi
o We’re hearing that pricing details are still being finalized, but they’re described as being much cheaper — perhaps around half as much — than anything else available for an Android device (i.e. a smartphone) through the traditional carriers
o You won’t need to sign up for a contract, so there aren’t any termination fees. No overage fees, either.

 

[BoberFett]

I've often wondered why calls couldn't be routed over Wi-Fi to the carriers network. Seems to me that carriers would have a big incentive to do that. They can remove traffic from towers and put it onto hardlines which would be a huge boost in capacity for them without adding a single new tower.

 

[TheStu]

I've often wondered why calls couldn't be routed over Wi-Fi to the carriers network. Seems to me that carriers would have a big incentive to do that. They can remove traffic from towers and put it onto hardlines which would be a huge boost in capacity for them without adding a single new tower.

Because then they can't charge you.

 

[gsaldivar]

I've often wondered why calls couldn't be routed over Wi-Fi to the carriers network. Seems to me that carriers would have a big incentive to do that. They can remove traffic from towers and put it onto hardlines which would be a huge boost in capacity for them without adding a single new tower.

They can, it just requires special hardware to do so. Some of the problems with doing this are that carriers may be opening a can of worms if enough people start complaining that the carrier is offloading their call traffic to local wifi hotspot owners and internet providers without compensating them. Now people that have nothing to do with T-Mobile have a burden to either carry that call traffic, or block it from their network... For this and other reasons (how & who gets charged?), this type of technology hasn't gotten much carrier support lately.

I predict that this company will get bought out or squashed like a bug long before they get any serious sales...

 

[manly]

I've often wondered why calls couldn't be routed over Wi-Fi to the carriers network. Seems to me that carriers would have a big incentive to do that. They can remove traffic from towers and put it onto hardlines which would be a huge boost in capacity for them without adding a single new tower.

I'm under the impression T-Mobile Android handsets have an app (WiFi calling) that does this. It's not seamless at the phone-level, and T-Mo still counts the minutes against the subscriber's account.

$19 sounds pretty intriguing, too bad you have to purchase a new handset to try it. It's implied that it's a smartphone with a customized dialer, which suggests $100ish just to get in.

 

[ponyo]

I use T-Mobile Wifi-Calling when I'm down in my basement and the quality of voice calls are absolutely terrible. Every calls has severe echos so it's tough to carry out long conversations. I don't have much faith Republic Wireless method will be all that better.

 

[jersiq]

Because then they can't charge you.

Although on the surface it seems like the big, bad wireless companines would like to do this....

In reality, it has more to do with controlling RF. Most Wi-Fi footprints (barring large scale deployments) are tiny compared to an actual cell site. There is no control over the frequencies, it's the wild,wild west on 802.11, and anyone can do whatever they want.

As an average customer (not an AT reader) how would you feel if customer service told you your recent inability to call was not their (the carriers) problem? That you have to suck it up and complain to the coffee shop owner who provided the Wi-Fi?

Lack of QoS on a public network, unregulated frequencies, and no guarantee of service are some of the reason carriers don't do this.

 

[Fox5]

I use T-Mobile Wifi-Calling when I'm down in my basement and the quality of voice calls are absolutely terrible. Every calls has severe echos so it's tough to carry out long conversations. I don't have much faith Republic Wireless method will be all that better.

I use TMo's wifi calling and it works pretty well. One number, switches over automatically. Downside is it requires a strong wifi signal and fast connection, unlike say Skype, which works fairly well even on crappy connections.

In fact, some of my friends in areas with poor reception across all carriers love tmo's wifi calling, because it's the only way they can make calls at all! Well, other than paying for Sprint's equivalent or getting a femtocell.

 

[vshah]

Because then they can't charge you.

tmobile does, and they don't charge you. all calls made on wifi are totally free.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Republic Wireless is selling it's phones for $99...

Supposed to launch tomorrow:

Welcome to republic wireless.

So what’s it like here?

A reward for being first:
Join now, and pay $99. That’s $100 less than the normal $199 cost. You read that right. For $99 you get a new smartphone, and a whole new kind of mobile phone network.

Freedom isn’t free. It’s $19.
Almost immediately you notice what’s missing. The hefty monthly bills, the endless nickel-and-diming, the big red contracts…yes, we can hear you now. Do you hear us? With republic wireless, you pay a flat $19 a month for everything. Period.

How is that possible?
republic is a Wi-Fi network. Anything cellular can do, Wi-Fi can do better (and for less). That’s 21st Century technology. That’s also basic economics. So let’s all use Wi-Fi as much as possible.

Change the way wireless works
Decide whether to become a member now, or maybe later. Either way, like minds for evolving the industry are wanted here, today. You have thoughts to share, ideas to spread. Bring them to our forums. Keep up with us via our blog. Tell the republic what’s up.

Next stop: republicwireless.com
There’s so much more we have to show you. So visit, look around. Oh, that $99 offer we told you about? To get it, use the code welcome19 to join before November 27, 2011 at 11:59 pm ET.

Looking forward to being your new wireless network!

Yours,
republic wireless

 

[hans007]

I've often wondered why calls couldn't be routed over Wi-Fi to the carriers network. Seems to me that carriers would have a big incentive to do that. They can remove traffic from towers and put it onto hardlines which would be a huge boost in capacity for them without adding a single new tower.

t-mobile already does this on their android phones. when i had t-mobile , given how spotty their coverage areas could be it was vastly improved.

though you were still charged min for it, and sometimes there was a slight lag on your phone initially ringing.

 

[hans007]

I use TMo's wifi calling and it works pretty well. One number, switches over automatically. Downside is it requires a strong wifi signal and fast connection, unlike say Skype, which works fairly well even on crappy connections.

In fact, some of my friends in areas with poor reception across all carriers love tmo's wifi calling, because it's the only way they can make calls at all! Well, other than paying for Sprint's equivalent or getting a femtocell.

its also nice because its the only way you can make calls in say a basement with wifi if its say concrete and doesnt get normal signal well.

 

[Doppel]

Hope it works out. I don't know enough to predict either way.

I will say it seems like cell phones are still way too fvcking expensive. What's the cheapest Verizon iphone plan like $70-80/month? That's awful. And most (all?) carriers require a voice plan, so you can't use it only for data, I presume so that people don't use skype on their iphone, etc.

 

[Chocu1a]

The phone they are using in their splash page is an LG Optimus. Great little phone with a huge dev community.

 

[Doppel]

Site now live.

There are a couple of dead graphics on the site, also if you try and buy it you'll get a "You're ready, we're not" check back later on November 8 message.

There is a 30 day money back guarantee, though.

Oh, here we go: http://www.republicwireless.com/catch

The best way to know how you're doing is by checking out your Cellular Usage Index (CUI). If it's too high, we'll let you know and give you tips to bring it down. You have plenty of time. But meanwhile, you still pay a flat fee of $19/month no matter what..Everyone’s entitled to a bad day, week or month. Kicking the cell habit, however, isn’t for everyone. Membership here is a privilege. So, over time, if you don’t bring your CUI back into a reasonable range, we’ll help you find a more suitable, traditional cellular carrier..

This basically tells me that if you're not on wi-fi enough you're gonna get booted.

Seems reasonable assuming their numbers are ok. To be totally honest this would work superbly for me. I'm near wi-fi every moment I'm at home (as many/most are). The only time I'm not would be when out and about, or at work or whatever.

Even assuming 0% wifi usage, for example, you could consume 550 minutes, send 150 texts, and download 300 megabytes of data without crossing the community’s fair use threshold.

This is very good. I've shopped pre-paid plans a great deal locally and $19 to get that amount of volume would be a real stretch, but if you can then do literally magnitudes more than that on wi-fi, this phone service will absolutely kill if

1) Voice quality doesn't suck
2) Network doesn't get thrashed for some reason or oversubscribed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwidth.com the company is extremely small, though. That concerns me that they'll get over their head very quickly with this service. They are going to limit the number of people who can join.

 

[Doppel]

(edit)

 

[Pliablemoose]

Hmmm

 

[cronos]

This looks really promising. Unfortunately I'm already paying less than $20/month per line with the way we use our lines (three total) so there's no incentive for me to try it. Plus they don't allow BYOD which is kind of a deal breaker for me.

This is a good start though. Hopefully they can be successful so more companies will try something like this and drag the cost down even more.

 

[Adam8281]

I'm all over this for my wife - a stay-at-home mom who's almost always near wi-fi. The 30 day money-back guarantee should let me figure out how well the phone handles cellular/wifi switching, and assess the call quality over wi-fi. This looks to be a big money saver.

 

[basslover1]

I may give it a shot when their site lets your order again.

I use on average 75 minutes a month, 10 cellular texts (mostly GV), and about 1-1.5GB of data, though I'm almost never on Wi-Fi at home when I easily could be.

 

[Doppel]

Strange that the site still isn't allowing people to join.

 

[BoberFett]

Join? Hell, their site won't even load in my browser.

 

[Doppel]

Join? Hell, their site won't even load in my browser.

Yeah it crashed, not really a good sign.

You can see them on facebook they are madly scrambling to get it back up. I gotta say I actually feel bad for them because I know the anxiety levels in their office must be absolutely through the roof. Still, this is amateurish.