Category: Project Fi

For over a year now I have been a Project Fi subscriber and frankly, I’ve never looked back.  After being on AT&T for well over a decade, I looked at Fi with a bit of skepticism when I joined in October 2015, so much so that I didn’t shut down my AT&T account until December.  But the double paying, I felt, would allow me to jump ship quickly, taking my then Nexus 6 with me.  It never happened and, in fact, never crossed my mind.  Google’s MVNO is solid, even in the upper elevations of Colorado where I live.  I’ve traveled all over the United States in the last year and not once have I had an issue with Fi completing calls or giving me good data throughput.  I’ve recommended it countless times here and in person and now there is a chance for you to try Project Fi and save on your first bill.

Today Fi rolled out a referral program for those of us who are subscribers.  For everyone who subscribes, we both get $20 off our first bill (in your case) and next bill (in my case).  Sure it is a win-win for both of us but if you have been thinking about making the switch, now is a good time to try.  All you have to do is go to this link to sign up and try.

Nearly 200 Google users have found themselves banned and suspended from Google after making a clear violation of their terms of service.  The users purchased a Google Pixel through Project Fi and then had those phones shipped to a 3rd party in New Hampshire.  Those phones were then resold and the profits split between the 3rd party company and the original buyer of the phone.  While it is perfectly legal for you to resell your phone, it is equally clear in the Project Fi and Google Store terms that you cannot do this or you will have your account suspended.  That is exactly what has happened and this is no small deal.  A suspended Google account means you can’t access anything associated with that account:  Gmail, Calendar, Google Photos, Google Docs, etc.  It is a complete shutdown.

At the time of this post, none of the accounts that have been suspended have been re-enabled.  While owners of these accounts can appeal to Google, it is a question if they will ever get back into those accounts.  So the question is this:  Is this too draconian by Google?

It has taken a while but Google’s MVNO, Project Fi, has finally added group plans to the service.  Now you can add lines to a Fi user’s account for $15 per month and use a shared pool of data that will all be on one bill.  To this point, if multiple family members wanted to use Fi, each one had to sign up for their own account.  The good thing is that fundamentally, the service isn’t changing for this new option.  You can still add and remove members of the plan at any time without penalty and your data is still billed at $10 per Gigabit.

A few weeks ago, Google announced that Wi-Fi Assistant would be coming to all Nexus phones over the course of the coming weeks.  That appears to have started happening.  Several Nexus owners are now seeing the option in their settings and are now able to take advantage of the data saving feature.   Wi-Fi Assistant to this point has been exclusive to Project Fi users which allows their devices to automatically connect to Google approved Wi-Fi hotspots securely and without any user intervention.  It is a huge benefit to Fi frankly as it saves on data plan usage.  It will connect your phone to Wi-Fi without you even knowing it.  Now all Nexus owners will benefit from the feature.  The good news is that it is all a back end change and there is no update required on your phone.

A small but important update is currently rolling out for the Project Fi app.  The update brings the ability for users to chat with Project Fi support, not just an email or phone call from within the app.  Fi users have been able to chat with support but, to this point, it has only been through the Fi website.  This update gives you all three modes to contact the Fi team to get help or get questions answered.  As a Fi users, I’m glad to see this update as I there are times where having a chat session is faster than an email or phone call, especially if I’m on-the-go.

To access this new option, just open the Project Fi app, swipe over to the Support tab and tap on Chat.  Easy-peasy.

Great news and yet another reason to pick up a Nexus phone.  The Nexus team at Google has announced that Wi-Fi Assistant is coming to all Nexus phones in the coming weeks.  Wi-Fi Assistant to this point has been exclusive to Project Fi users which allows their devices to automatically connect to Google approved Wi-Fi hotspots securely and without any user intervention.  It is a huge benefit to Fi frankly as it saves on data plan usage.  It will connect your phone to Wi-Fi without you even knowing it.  Now all Nexus owners will benefit from the feature.