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Smartphone service for only $19 a month
Gary Krakow
republic wireless announces cheap, unlimited voice, messaging and data without a contract. But, it also depends on your Wi-fi.
What it looks like when you're making a call, indoors, on a republic wireless phone.
Published on Nov 8, 2011
What do you pay for your monthly smartphone service? $100 or more? $80? $60? $50?
How about $19? With no contract? That's what a new company, republic wireless (all lower case!) says it should cost you.
How will they do it? With phones that take advantage of your home/office/friend's Wi-fi connection – using it as the primary source of connecting to everything that a smartphone connects to. They call that Hybrid Calling.
republic wireless, a division of Bandwidth.com, is about to unleash a new cellular/VoIP service that is meant to take the place of your expensive cell phone contracts.
Beginning today, republic is taking orders for their first phone, a LG Optimus. Android 2.3. All the bells and whistles you'd expect. It will cost you $199 but that includes your first month's ($19) service.
About that service. It includes unlimited voice calls, unlimited text messages and unlimited data megabytes. When you're not near a Wi-fi connection your phone will be able to use Sprint's 3G network.
So, you may ask, what would keep me from using Sprint;s cellular network all the time. Republic is one step ahead of you (at least):
“The republic wireless community will leverage available Wi-Fi networks to minimize its cellular footprint. Each member will establish at least one Wi-Fi connection to maintain the community’s fair use policy. To help members keep tabs on how they’re doing, republic wireless provides them with regular feedback and usage data available online. The data includes comparative and trended metrics such as Wi-Fi percentage and cell network utilization for the individual and the community overall.”
republic wireless GM Brian Dally told me that this is smartphone sercice the way it should be. I agree (of course, with the proviso that the VoIP/Wi-fi calling works the way it's supposed to). We'll see.
One last note. If you're willing to be among the first to sign-up for republic's beta, they'll sell you that LG phone and first month's service for $99. You just have to do so by 11:59pm ET on November 27th.
We'll have a full test report on the phone and republic's service by that date.
