Category: Project Fi

Signal Spy, the great helper app for Project Fi users, has been updated and now also supports U.S. Cellular.  As readers will know, Project Fi has started rolling out support for U.S. Cellular as part of the MVNO (joining T-Mobile and Sprint) so it can seamlessly move you from any of the three carriers to another for better data and call quality.  Signal Spy, which allows you to monitor your connections and manually force them to change, now supports U.S. Cellular too.

So first, let me be clear.  This update to the Project Fi app that is rolling out to the Google Play Store does not enable U.S. Cellular support.  Yet.  If you are a Fi users then you will be seeing the update come to your Nexus 5X, Nexus 6 or Nexus 6P over the course of the next few days and it is part of the puzzle for U.S. Cellular support with Google’s MVNO.

As readers will know, U.S. Cellular was announced as the 3rd carrier that makes up the service, joining T-Mobile and Sprint.  That announcement was last month and the expectation has been that an update to the Fi app would be required to make all of it work on the back end.  That, effectively, is this update.

T-Mobile has announced an agreement with Leap Licenseco, an AT&T subsidiary, to acquire a section of A-Block 700 MHz band for extended LTE in the greater Chicago area.  Although the deal has to be approved by regulators, once it is complete, it will give the carrier extended LTE bandwidth in the top 10 major metro areas in the United States.  For those not familiar with the 700 MHz block, it is what allows the carrier to get LTE into remote places as well as into buildings in urban areas.  This is represented by Band 12 on their network when you access it on your phone.

The Project Fi app for subscribers of Google’s MVNO service has been updated and it is an update that fixes a serious bug in the app.  The build you are looking for is version 1.2.1.30 for those keeping score at home and it is just now rolling out to the Google Play Store.  While you won’t find any new features in the release, you will get a bug fix that stops the use of mobile data when you are on Wi-Fi or have completely turned off mobile data.  The bug is a big deal given that mobile data savings is one of the key pillar points of the service.

Project Fi users, there is an update to the app for your Android phone that will bring you a long requested feature:  A Home Screen widget.  The updated version is rolling out to the Google Play Store now and you should have the update come to you via an OTA update over the course of the next few days.  The widget, which is a dial that shows you how much you data you have used for your current billing cycle and will show you how may days you have left in the cycle.

For those of you on Project Fi, there is a great new addition to the service’s website.  Now you can see your call and text history right on the site, including if the call or text was an inbound or outbound communication.  The update came yesterday to the site and while there is no word on if this will make it into the Fi app itself, you can at least for now, go to the web and check out the details.