Saturday, November 21, 2020

Switching to Google Fi

On November 19, 2020, I decided to switch from AT&T cellphone plans to Google Fi to save on my cellular bill (usually about $160/month for 4 lines). With COVID-19 still raging, our cellular use has declined significantly, and we no longer need to pay for 10G of data per month.

I selected the $50 per 3-line build with $10/GB of data use. I don't expect to use more than 5Gbytes/month, which should save me money.

AT&T Wireless yearly cost = $160/month x 12 months = $1920.00/year (for 10 GB of shared data)

Google Fi yearly cost = $100/month x 12 months = $1200.00 /year (for 5 GB of data)

I started the phone porting process (moving my cell number from AT&T to Google Fi on 11/19/2020) and ordered the sim cards for Inna's and Alex's iPhone 8+.

Initially, my telephone porting process failed. It took me a day to contact Google Fi, and then AT&T. I figured out that I provided the wrong pin to Google Fi. Once I reset my AT&T pin, the porting process worked well (within 30 minutes). 

I am now running on Google Fi. So far, it's working acceptably well. I have not noticed any issues yet, but it's too early to tell.

I also moved Alex's and Inna's iPhone 8 Plus to Google Fi without issues. Likewise, I had to unlock each AT&T phone before inserting the Google Fi sim cards, but it was flick and painless.

I ordered a Motorola G Power phone for Vladimir for $150 (as Google Fi was offering a $100 discount and a $150 service credit). It's an impressive Android phone for $150 with a beautiful screen, fast operation, and lightweight. The fingerprint sensor didn't work as well as I expected, but it's a minor issue.

Inna spent some time teaching Vladimir how to unlock the Motorola G Power phone and call on it.


 



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