TGarza

I finally convinced my wife we should move our old home number of 20+ years to Google to save the $$$ for the occasional important call. Now she likes the number ringing in the Hangouts app and receiving the text & email transcriptions.

To move a landline number to Google requires moving the line to a mobile company and then Google. I purchased a $10 T Mobile prepay package and had the line to Google within 2 days. Google charges a one time fee of $20 for the port in.

TravelinSperry

What does this mean? One can still receive texts, correct?

tmiw

This just affects forwarding of texts off of Fi onto a phone from another carrier. Texts will still come in on Fi devices.

TravelinSperry

I have been having quite the difficulties with Fi. Some countries work seamlessly. And it's quite lovely when that occurs. But some don't and require much back and forth with escalated Fi personnel.

For those that have issues connecting, here are steps try (in order):

1- Reboot phone
2- Toggle "airplane mode" on/off. Wait five seconds after toggling off (it resets phone modem).
3- Try manually connecting to each available network.
4- Try manually connecting to each available network, but toggle down from 4g to 3g.
5- Try manually connecting to each available network, but toggle down from 3g to 2g.

If none of the above steps work - you will need to contact Google Fi and escalate. You can tell them you did all the steps above (these are the steps the lower level people will require you to try before escalating).

In my case, two countries still wouldn't connect after completing steps 1-5 above (Kazakhstan & Ukraine) but one did (Bulgaria) via step 4.

Google Fi reps needed to contact the local providers in Ukraine to get service working and needed to modify back office settings for Fi to get service working in Kazakhstan. While I am still a fan of Fi - some of these less traveled countries still have issues.

Zorak

Just returned from the FlyerTalk Cow DO in Buenos Aires -- similar to past reports, could not use Hangouts Dialer to make phone calls over wifi unless I used a VPN. Had great/fast signal otherwise.

I've added the link that TravelinSperry mentioned to the wiki.

boerne

As previously posted Fi worked great in Krakow. Also rural southern Poland (Zakopane) and into Northern Slovakia just over the border. You will ping Slovakia towers while still in Poland just like all borders. I did have to restart the phone a couple of times but did not require more than that. Mrs. Boerne has the same service and did not have to restart her phone as much as I did, so it might be the individual phone. Also can report good coverage in the Shetlands, Orkneys, and rural Norway.

TravelinSperry

Fi superfast in Corsica. Slow in Sardegna (but not absurdly slow like in X'ian China).

LordHamster

NYTA

That would be good news indeed as I have wanted for quite some time to move off my Pixel 1 to an iPhone but with the latest iPhone prices being as insane as they are I may just stick with my Pixel for another year.

LordHamster

The main attraction to me as a frequent international traveler is the unthrottled full speed LTE at a reasonable price $10/GB. With the price protection, FI comes out to no more than $80/ month for Global unthrottled LTE coverage which with my usage may as well be unlimited, as I rarely go over 10-12GB at most ever.

I started my project FI journey with the Nexus 6P. Loved it so much, I kept using FI when I got my Pixel the year it came out. Eventually, I stuck my FI sim into my iPhone X when I migrated back to the iPhone world last year. Since then... I got the iPhone XS Max... and had a brilliant idea.

I was going to move back to T-Mobile (thus getting support of: visual voicemail, fully working imessage, wifi calling, apple watch support etc), then move the service to the esim slot once the feature was enabled with iOS 12.1. I would then take my project FI "Data only sims" and put one in my phone, and one in my wife's phone. Unfortunately this plan hasn't materialized as esim is no yet supported by T-Mo.

Since porting my primary number back to T-Mobile, three things have happened that have me wondering what to do.

• iOS 12.1 came out, but no carriers in the US are supporting e-sim yet (foiled that plan :/)
• T-Mo announced Global Plus unlimited (which I jumped on)... they subsequently replaced the plan with a 15GB limited version.
• Fi may shortly be available native on iPhones.

LordHamster

Well, it is official! Project FI now supports non-Google phones, including iPhone!!

https://www.blog.google/products/pro...droid-and-ios/


(Sorry for the double post, but this news is too important to loose)

tmiw

Clicking around with their compatibility tool it looks like Fi may be T-Mobile only on the iPhone ("X" for network switching/"Even more security and network reliability"). Still, Fi's plan is pretty nice so it's probably worth the downside.

Yoshi212

There is a Pixel 3 promo for Travel Gift cards up to the cost of the phone currently. Just getting into reading the details but it's today 28-Nov only.
https://fi.google.com/about/device-promo-terms/

kaszeta

Yeah, unless you jump through hoops, the iPhone (at least my iPhone 8) only works on T-Mobile in the US with a Fi sim. Depending on where you are, that could be good, or could be bad (where I live, it's basically nonexistent).

That said, I still have a Fi account with several SIMs, I just suspend it when I'm in the US and activate it when I travel (I do about 6 international trips a year). Nice to have a reasonably priced option that works right out of the gate without my having to hunt down a SIM.

swag

Valid on other phones as well, if the Pixel 3 isn't your choice. Seems like a heck of a deal.