About two years ago, I was using Verizon Wireless for cell phone service with a Samsung Galaxy S3. I thought I had a pretty good deal, as I had what I thought at the time was a low amount of data (6GB split between three lines) and a massive 25% discount on the non-data portion of the plan. It came to about $55/mo per person, which was WAY lower than my friends and family. Even though I was under the impression that I had optimized this aspect of my finances, after reading MMMs article about the Moto G, I decided to do a little bit more digging to see if there were additional savings to be had.
I found that the bulk of the data being used each month was by my brother in law. I was using about a quarter of a gig and my wife was using a little over half a gig. I only had two months left in my contract with Verizon, so as soon as it ended I made sure we went to month to month pricing and switched to Republic wireless.
Republic’s website and sign up process was very easy to navigate and very user friendly. At that time you had to use the Republic wireless phones (now that have a much wider selection and you can use many non Republic wireless phones); I chose the Moto G (I think 2nd gen? Maybe 3rd gen?) with 16 GB. I chose a plan called the “Republic refund” which was $10/mo for unlimited talk and text, with data added on at $7.50/half GB.
A couple of days later my phone arrived and I started the transition. I was able to use a Motorola app to easily transfer my pictures and contacts to the new phone, my number switched over quickly and easily. I remember at the time thinking that my S3 was a superior phone, but now I can’t seem to remember any of the features that made me think that (aside from Samsung’s built in file manager system; something the Moto phone lacked at the time).
THE GOOD: I’ll start with the phone. The display, speed, sound, call clarity and general usability were all either as good as the S3 or better (aside from the previously mentioned file manager). Initially I thought the camera was way worse on the Moto, but after adjusting some settings and getting better at using the focus, I’ve come around to think the Moto’s camera is actually better. For the first month or two, I remember thinking that the Moto was a LITTLE worse than the Samsung but the differences weren’t worth the extra price per month. Two years in though, and I can’t think of a single thing that I lost on the Samsung that affected my daily use. The Moto does have an absolutely awesome feature that I love though: by making a karate chop motion with the phone you can activate the flashlight; I use this feature all the time. After two years, I’m JUST starting to experience some slowing performance on the phone; I expect to be able to use this phone effectively for another 2+ years.
When used correctly, the cell service is spectacular, probably better than any other cell service I’ve used. Call clarity is generally excellent, I rarely get dropped calls and the times when I don’t have service are so rare that they’re not really even worth mentioning. I literally can’t think of the last time I had no service. I use very little data, so adding data above my half gig limit is also rare, but on the couple of times that I did have to do so, the process was easy, quick and nearly instantaneous.
THE BAD: When my wife switched over, she chose the Moto X and hasn’t liked it. The pictures taken with her phone are almost always worse than on my phone (though I suspect they could be improved with adjustments to the settings or better use of the focus). She switched from an HTC One and says that her Moto is worse in nearly every way. Choosing a bad phone should be less of an issue now though, since they have widely expanded their phone selection and even have a “Bring Your Own Device” program.
Additionally the service works well WHEN USED CORRECTLY. Since Republic works mostly by using Wi-fi, it is always trying to connect your cell, text and data to Wi-fi when your phone’s wi-fi is on. Sometimes the phone gets “tricked” into thinking it’s connected to wi-fi when it’s actually not. It seems to happen whenever the wi-fi network forces you to go to a website to enter your login info. When this happens, the phone tries to route any calls, data, or text messages through a wi-fi network it is not actually connected to, which means you can’t connect. The easiest solution I’ve found is to just turn wi-fi off when I’m out and about forcing the phone to use a cell connection, then turn it back on when I get back to a known network. It can cause some issues if you forget to flip that switch causing you to use more data than needed or interrupting your service at an inconvenient time. I find this inconvenience to be well worth the savings, but you may think otherwise.
THE SAVINGS: I’ll low-ball my monthly savings at $30/mo, even though they were probably a little more, which means that I’m saving $1080 every three years on my plan. Subtract out the cost of replacing the phone every three years or so (I never paid for a phone on my previous cell plans, I always just got whatever model was free), and I’m still way ahead by about $700 bucks. There are likely cheaper plans out there (the superguide detailed some), but to me Republic isn’t designed to compete with them. I found my experience with Republic wireless to be almost identical to the big name cell plan providers; it was basically “plug and play”. If you have the technical know how to set up your phone to use VoIP through another carrier, that’s great, but Republic wireless seems to be geared more towards those like myself who don’t have that know how.
After two years, I can certainly recommend them as a top notch cell phone service provider.
