Republic Wireless

Saving money.  In this day and age...its what most of us want.  One bill that REALLY kills me is a cell phone.  I am paying over $150 bucks for two smartphones a month...and neither phone is used all that much. 

One day I found an article online about a new company called Republic Wireless...and how they were going to shake the cell phone world up.  OK...I thought...I'll bite...and I clicked the link.  Basically...they use WiFi for the bulk of their calls, but when it isn't available...it uses cellular signals.  Interesting...I thought.  You buy your phone upfront ($299)...then you pay for whatever plan you want to use.  They have a WiFi only plan...which is $5 a month...unlimited calls, text, and data.  Hmmm...I thought.  What if you are traveling and can't get WiFi?  So...they have another plan that is unlimited WiFi and cellular...which allows you to make unlimited calls and text on both WiFi and cellular, but the data is limited to WiFi only...for only $10 a month.  Again...I thought...hmmmmm.  I thinking...for only 10 bucks...I could always wait until I got somewhere that has WiFi...so...that sounds like a heck of a deal!  They also have a unlimited talk, text, and data on WiFi and 3G for $30 a month...and a unlimited talk, text, and data on WiFi and 4G for $40 a month...but...those didn't interest me...still a GREAT deal compared to everything else!

The REAL question was...how good is the service?  If its only 10 bucks a month...but it doesn't work well...its a wasted 10 and the cost of the phone (granted...they do offer a 30 trial and if you aren't happy you can return the phone).  So...for MONTHS I pondered and pondered and pondered.  Finally I decided to just bite the bullet and order the phone.  It only took about a week to get the phone (a sweet Moto X) and I had read that if you plan to use the cellular portion you HAD to activate it where there is Sprint coverage (they partner with Sprint, but they will roam on just about all CDMA towers...such as Verizon and Appalachian Wireless). 

So...I took my daughter over to London where Sprint has pretty good coverage and activated the phone.  We did have to find a place that offered WiFi so we could configure the phone since I didn't get the 3 or 4G package...but once we found a WiFi zone...we were off and running.  The initial calls worked perfectly and the sound quality was just as good as any other cell phone I'd used.

On the drive home I had my daughter keep checking to see if the phone would continue to get signal...and to my surprise...it only showed no bars a time or two the whole way.  And...thanks to Appalachian Wireless...coverage is pretty good in Hyden and most of the way to my house. 

Once we got home...I connected to our WiFi and the phone has been working GREAT!  I took the phone to work with me...and connected to our WiFi there...and I was at our most remote location...in our wiring closet deep inside the building...and was talking like a BOSS!  People were asking me..."do you get signal...HERE?"  So...I had to show off and brag a little that I was using a WiFi phone and that I was saving a bunch of money.

I have since given the phone to my daughter...and I'm using my old phone (a Nokia Lumia 920), but I'm REALLY considering getting another phone when my contract runs out.  With 2 phones...I would be saving $130 a month...but...since I would have to buy the phone that would put the total investment of phones at $600, so it would take me about 6 months to really start saving money...but after the cost is paid for...total awesomeness!

Anyhoo...just thought I would share my tale of saving money on cell phones...now...if I could only save money on car insurance...:)