Republic Wireless

[SrDriver]

I have been looking into different cell phone plans and found Republic Wireless that has 4 plans starting at $5.00 a month. I am thinking of the $10.00 + tax a month plan that includes unlimited talk, text, and unlimited data. Data is over Wi-Fi only.

They will be offering the Moto E phone for $99.00 which should meet my needs although they have a couple of other phones.

Was wondering if anyone is using/has any experience with this company and their cell phone service?

 

[Cutehumor]

I have the moto x on republic wireless. excellent service for almost a year. the wifi to cell handoff works seamlessly. be sure your sprint coverage in your area is adequate. they use sprint towers for cell/data.

be aware though, you will be tied to republic wireless. the processor is hacked to do wifi calls first to save on costs. You can't drop republic wireless and use their phone with another carrier.

 

[gregk24]

Two of my cousins have it and they seem to like the service. Look into Freedompop wireless as well, my two brothers have this and they pay 0 a month for the basic plan, yes $0.00 per month.

 

[Hollow]

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...one#Post3472804

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...-_W#Post3470869

 

[ThirdeYe]

One of my friends has it and it works fine for him. He has some sort of add-on for it to get extra data up to a certain point through some sort of WiFi hotspot generator that he pays extra for as well. I believe that was through a separate company.

 

[rationull]

One thing to keep in mind if considering Republic is to read this list of caveats: http://republic-wireless.wikia.com/wiki/The_Complete_List_of_Caveats and make sure you're OK with what they offer. If you are, it's a great deal and it's easy to get behind the company and their mission/goals as well. But it's not all roses.

One thing to keep in mind in particular is that all support (tech support, account support, etc.) is handled via a community forum and an online issue/ticket. tracking system. I've been having some issues with my Republic service for the past month or so and on the one hand, I actually do enjoy being able to handle communicating with them asynchronously via the web (vs spending hours on the phone talking to reps who aren't going to fix my technical problems themselves anyway) but on the other hand it can be frustrating having to wait days between message/response cycles with them and the ticket has been passed through about 6 different techs in that time.

YMMV greatly depending on how good Sprint's coverage in your area is.

 

[crazyoildude]

$5.00 a month? Here in NJ that wont get you the whopper combo...lol

 

[michaelluscher]

I wouldn't deal with a Sprint MVNO.... [censored] I stopped dealing with Sprint a year ago due to poor service.

According to RootMetrics, Verizon's a standout for overall reliability in Alabama, with AT&T being a close-ish second.
http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/rsr/alabama

If your trying to keep costs down, Verizon's cheapest is there Allset plans, followed by there best MVNO, PagePlus.
On the AT&T side, they're GoPhone plans are well priced, as is there best MVNO, Cricket, who which they now own.

 

[bullwinkle]

I just switched my Verizon Allset iPhone 4 to Tracfone's Verizon CDMA plan-$200 gets you a full year of service with 4500 minutes, 4500 texts, & 4.5 GB of data. Since I generally use data over wifi, I just have to milk out the texts & minutes. A lot cheaper than the $45/month I was paying.

 

[michaelluscher]

Don't forget, if your on WiFi a lot
Google Hangouts now does free VoWiFi, and Hangouts is good if you have other people using it.
If you need to save those minutes and texts, and your on good WiFi a lot, the call quality and send speeds are usually much better.

 

[Rand]

you can always turn it into a home phone for 5$ if you dont like the service.

Sprint spent billions in the last year upgrading their network.

it went from pathetic 3g that wouldnt download webpages to 20mbit 4g here.

I'm currently on ting for about 50$/2 cell phones but I am considering going to republic wireless for 50/ 2 phones with 3g data.

 

[SF0059]

I have had a Moto X on Republic for almost a year now and I absolutely love it.

As someone said above, make sure that your Sprint coverage is decent. Mine is fine, in fact it is on par with the Verizon coverage I had.

My cell phone bill went from $130/mo for two lines to $50/mo for two. I have the 3G plan. Any time I get frustrated by slow 3G I just remember that I am saving $80 a month and I am immediately happy to wait. Plus, this doesn't happen often because I am on wifi 75% of the time.

If the bottom line cost is your biggest consideration, nothing beat Republic in my opinion. Great concept, great customer service, and inexpensive!