Google fi Your experiences

[cruiseship]

Hello,

Which experiences did you made with Google fi?

I am using it in Germany Italy Swizerland Chile and China and it always worked very well.

I always had a very good 4g-connection and it was a great experience.

[sveinung]

Used it for the last 4 or so years, the roaming service is pretty unmatched (live in the US but spend a lot of time in Norway). I barely use my Norwegian sim at all, phone just works like it's in its home network wherever we travel.
Data only sims is the only grievance, can't be used in hotspot devices.

[Paul L]

Used it a bit in Asia. It often connects at a lower speed than a local Sim, costs more for lots of data - maybe 2x.
That said, it is really nice to sail into a new country and have instant cell connectivity, even before clearing in - especially in Covid season.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by sveinung

Used it for the last 4 or so years, the roaming service is pretty unmatched (live in the US but spend a lot of time in Norway). I barely use my Norwegian sim at all, phone just works like it's in its home network wherever we travel.
Data only sims is the only grievance, can't be used in hotspot devices.

I actually recently ordered 3 data only sims and put them in three different hotspot devices I bought off ebay(I channel bond with speedify) and they worked just fine. So that might have changed for the better since you last tried it.

To the OP, I've used the Google Fi data service specifically while sailing in Croatia, Greece, the Bahamas, and the French Caribbean and it worked surprisingly well in all those places. Also used on land throughout Europe, Central and South America, and the Caribbean with good results everywhere except Belize several years ago which wasn't covered then (not sure now?). Its cheaper to go with a local sim if you're going to be somewhere for a while and you may get higher speeds as well. But for a couple weeks somewhere it's more than adequate for most of what you might want to do short of streaming video.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

I actually recently ordered 3 data only sims and put them in three different hotspot devices I bought off ebay(I channel bond with speedify) and they worked just fine. So that might have changed for the better since you last tried it.

Google used to advertise this as a feature; they'd even give you a free SIM card to put in a hotspot device. That has changed. See this page:

After you sign up for Google Fi and activate your phone, to use your mobile data on tablets and other compatible devices, add a data-only SIM card to your account

What you need to know
Eligibility: As long as you have service activated with Google Fi, you can add another device with a data-only SIM.
Cost: Cost depends on your Fi billing plan. Learn more about Fi plans. If you want to find out how much your data-only SIM uses, check your data usage. You can find a breakdown for each additional device.
Tethering: Tethering from a device with a data-only SIM isn’t supported.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Google used to advertise this as a feature; they'd even give you a free SIM card to put in a hotspot device. That has changed. See this page:

Not supported isn't the same as "doesn't work". It's generally the phrase firms use when they don't want to support it, i.e. they don't advertise it will work, don't want to hear your complaints when it doesn't work, they don't provide customer service for that service... In reality, it works, happy to send a video of it working right now on both an old Verizon and TMobile hotspot as well as on my moto x4 phone set up as a hotspot.

[Argyle38]

I used Google Fi for a couple of years. One of the main attractions was the international coverage. When traveling (Canada and Europe) it was seamless and never had any issues with connectivity or speeds, but I'm not a heavy user when traveling either. Those trips were always short in duration, typical vacations. Now we live aboard and once it's easy to cross boarders again, we will be in foreign countries for longer durations. The Google Fi international coverage doesn't really support that. I've heard of many folks lose service after being abroad for longer than 90 days. This was always in the contract but when I signed up, you would have to read the whole contract to find it. Google wasn't enforcing it for a while either, but now I've heard (on here and other places) that they do, so their international coverage isn't nearly as attractive as they had lead early customers to believe it was.

Another issue is that if you are on a variable data plan, once you get to the data cap, the throttling is VERY slow. I think they drop it down to 256kb/s. This is basically dial-up speeds and that sounds OK since most of us remember those days and survived just fine, things were just slower. The problem is that these speeds break the modern internet. If parts of pages don't load fast enough, often it just hangs and assumes there's no connection. This includes Gmail and simple weather pages, not even talking about Youtube videos here.

After my wife dropped her phone overboard in Beaufort (NC) on Thanksgiving, we shopped around and ended up on T-mobile (with some black Friday deals on new phones, so not all bad ). The data throttling on T-mobile is 4x (I think) of what Fi was. Still not video rate but good enough not to break the internet.

Another minor risk with Google is that they are getting a bit of a reputation of cancelling services with little or no notice. Don't know how likely it is that they would cancel Fi, but they certainly could. Not likely T-mobile or Verizon does that since it's kind of all they do.
Sounds like I'm dogging on Fi. It was a decent service, but it didn't match my needs once I moved out of a house where 90% of my data was consumed from cable internet.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

Not supported isn't the same as "doesn't work". It's generally the phrase firms use when they don't want to support it, i.e. they don't advertise it will work, don't want to hear your complaints when it doesn't work, they don't provide customer service for that service... In reality, it works, happy to send a video of it working right now on both an old Verizon and TMobile hotspot as well as on my moto x4 phone set up as a hotspot.

That's good to know. I know phones will physically block tethering (not even show the option) based on the SIM card telling them to. I didn't know whether hotspots will do the same thing, and I didn't really want to invest in one only to find out it doesn't work, either initially or after some firmware upgrade.

Also, I'll have to figure out which SIM card to order for which hotspot, since now that Google doesn't support it, they probably won't tell me.

[dcondit]

Just wanted to update the thread on my recent experience. Just got back from three weeks in the Bahamas and got Google Fi before I went so I’d have service upon arrival. I could have used my Verizon account at $10 per day, but that gets expensive. I also considered buying a local sim card but wanted to try Fi for future potential uses.

My device would not connect, so I had to wait until I was docked and get on marina WIFI to chat with customer service. The first thing they asked was whether I activated the sim card in the US. I had, and apparently that’s essential. The fix to connect was to change the network selection from automatic to manual and then connect to each one listed until it worked. Not a big deal, but a lesson-learned for future use. It also showed 3G connection he whole time, but my speeds were what I’d expect on 4G, so maybe that’s just a Bahamas thing.

I found my hotspot did not work. Again, I chatted with customer service which was quick and responsive. They informed me the hotspot is no longer supported by Apple. Unfortunately, I use Apple devices exclusively, so I was out of luck for the trip. If I give Google Fi another try in the future I will purchase a used Samsung or Pixel device and just use it as a hotspot to connect my Apple devices.

I had the “unlimited” plan and never ran out of high-speed data so never got the throttle limiter. However, I mostly used the device for weather with a little internet surfing and communication home. I completely avoided any kind of work.

All of the issues may be in the fine print, but I’m posting here as I didn’t see it before leaving the US so suspect others might not either. I’m also interested in recent experiences for other countries and if the issues are similar. What I’m looking for is a seamless international plan with unlimited talk/text, reasonable price and pretty good data that supports hotspotting. It seams like Google Fi is a good thing, but I’m back on the fence.

[GordMay]

Greetings and belated welcome aboard the CF, dcondit.
Thanks, for your report.

[mvweebles]

I travel to Mexico a few times a year, sometimes for over a month at a time. I had a Verizon plan for a few years - their plan that includes 500mb/data and free text/calling back to the US. Charge was $93/mo (incl tax/fees).

Earlier this year, I switched to Google FI. I typically only use 2-4 gb of data a month, so I chose their Flex plan ($20/mo plus $10/gb - free calls/texts). On average, saved abuot half off my Verizon bill, but it's not really apples/apples - I am in Ensenada and my Google Fi charges are pretty high due to $0.20/min for calling. Supposedly, calling automatically switches to WiFi so you avoid this, but I have to force my phone into WiFi-only mode to do so. Workable, but an unexpected hassle especially compared to my Verizon service that had no such requirement.

Verizon has made some decent offers to get me to return, and I likely will. The Google Fi plan has some benefits, but some are a bit thin. The only benefit I see is their Flex plan if you are a minimal data user.

Peter