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Friday, March 29, 2024

Save yourself money: switch your phone plan to a Wi-Fi service

Imagine an average student with an iPhone: She gives $45 a month to AT&T for cell service. If she switched to my $12.71 Republic Wireless plan, she’d save approximately $387 a year. That’s about 28 jars of Nutella from Amazon, or about 49 months of Netflix.

My first phone was for emergencies. It was a gray TracFone with an annoying chirp and a small physical keyboard. I think the phone is still collecting dust in a cupboard somewhere; I couldn’t find it on the TracFone website. I do remember having fun inputting prepaid minute card codes.

I needed a reliable way to acquire digits and schedule dates, so before I moved to Gainesville, I started researching. I’m cheap, so I needed an object that wouldn’t give me buyer’s remorse. But I also needed a status symbol.

First, I hacked together an iPhone. I used money from part-time jobs to buy a black iPod Touch, signed up for a Google Voice phone number, and used a Voice over Internet Protocol app called Talkatone to make and receive free calls over Wi-Fi. Crackly noise and lag turned phone conversations into a Blue’s Clues episode, so I returned the iPod.

Freshman year at UF, I rocked Virgin Mobile’s HTC One V. For $35, I had slow, unlimited 3G data from Sprint and unlimited texting on an Android smartphone. I had a cap at 300 minutes a month, so I abused Talkatone whenever I needed to talk too much. I didn’t get service in the usual places: underground caves, rural areas and the UF New Physics Building.

I desired a provider that took advantage of my surroundings: On campus, there’s Wi-Fi everywhere. Enter VoIP provider Republic Wireless.

I’ve been a Republic customer for almost two years now. They expect users to primarily use Wi-Fi calling, but its hybrid-calling algorithm is a beneficial mutation from traditional VoIP services. When I’m chilling at Volta with a clear Wi-Fi signal, the algorithm routes my calls and texts over the Wi-Fi network. When I walk outside and out of router range, the algorithm automatically hands me over to Sprint’s cell towers.

Occasionally, the algorithm falls asleep and disconnects a call instead of switching over. When that happens, I call back and pretend that I accidentally pressed the red hang-up button.

I only miss a data connection when I’m bored on a road trip. As long as I put in my destination address while on Wi-Fi, a GPS will direct me to the house party. When I travel abroad, I can still call and text over Wi-Fi. There’s no lag. The cell connection is usually clearer-sounding, but nobody I talk to notices either way.

There are swappable plans at Republic’s website. I can go without data, so $10 a month for unlimited calling and texting keeps my thumbs busy.

The $299 first-generation Motorola Moto X arrived outside my apartment in a white and green box with a small instruction booklet, and it led  me through setting up service via the Internet.

My Moto X isn’t a Samsung Galaxy S5, but app multitasking and YouTube are fluid. I lean toward the Android camp over iOS because it’s open source software built for customization. Even the option to design the physical device with Moto Maker is useful.

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As an equation: Independence from parents + high up-front handset cost + dirt-cheap monthly service = one happy customer.

Andrew Silver is a UF mathematics junior. His column appears on Wednesdays.

[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 1/21/2015 under the headline “Save yourself money: Use Wi-Fi service"]

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