I've been reading through the forum and the Project Fi waiting room thread kind of touches on my subject but there is some digging that has to be done to find post about how their experience has been so far now that they are on the Fi Network...
I've been activated for about a week now. So far the service has been pretty good. I spend most of my days on WIFI so it's a good fit for me. I've only had a few issues so far.
1. My office is really big with many APs, when on a call and walking through the building it gets confused on what it should do. As my phone switches between APs it will move the call over to cell towers and then back to wifi and the end user says that I am cutting out really bad...
2. When I don't have WIFI available and connected to the sprint network I cannot use data and talk on the phone at the same time.. I guess this is what all sprint users currently deal with and is a limitation of technology but I've been with ATT for a long time and am not used to this. I don't believe its just because they are CDMA. Verizon has been doing this for a while now, correct?
3. If I'm connected to the sprint network and on a call then move to an area where tmobile has better service, when I get off of the call my service will go unavailable for multiple seconds while it disconnects and reconnects to the tmobile network.
4. Slowness to send and receive sms/mms to other carriers. This is not recreateable and is random.. Maybe 5% of the time.
5. Reduced daily battery life. Maybe 15%ish.. I think I was able to correct a lot of this by limiting background data.
I don't think this thread is duplicated but if it is point me to the correct location.
I've been activated since May 26. The only difference I notice between Fi and my previous carrier AT&T is the $50 I'm saving every month.
There were some minor hiccups at various points along the way. I had intermittent mobile data for about 48 hours and the first week for a couple days only Hangouts would ring, not the phone. Those problems are long gone now, though. As far as I'm concerned this is the best thing Google has done since Search.
Project Fi user (4 months)
Project Fi is something I wish everybody had a chance to experience. Honestly it is one of the best cell providers in the US. Customer service is amazing, the cell service is great, maybe a few things here and there, but an overall really good experience for this being a beta. Google is doing a really good job! Keep it up
Ive had Fi for 4 months, I live in a very rural part of Illinois. Service is great. I have a lot of 3g, but I am ok with that. I would never switch back to big red. Ive heard things about T-Mobile expanding more in my area so.. that would make my service even better..
I activated Fi in June and have had only minor issues related to network switching. They seem to have been resolved over time and I can't really see any difference in service than when I had TMO or VZW. I live in Orlando and don't travel extensively any more but coverage is more than adequate. And the savings are incredible.
I've had it for a couple months, and I'm satisfied with the service. I noticed my data drops out in certain areas when I'm driving, but it works fine at places I spend most of my time at.
My signal at home is only so-so, as far as internet goes, but that doesn't matter much, as I'm on wi-fi at home, anyway. One minor annoyance I've run into, however, is that occasionally my Fi signal seems to die completely for a brief period of time, and when it does, it crashes whatever app I'm in. It's often during a game (and with my luck, it's usually when I'm doing well...). But it's not a huge deal or anything.
I've been on Fi since early August. Came from Sprint "unlimited" plan, which was not doing me much good because I can't get decent Sprint data coverage at my workplace. And of course I use WiFi at home. So the addition of T-Mobile made a much better network for me. In fact, the switching algorithm keeps me on T-Mobile most of the time as I am out and about town.
Overall, I doubt that the sum of the Sprint and TMO network footprints match the coverage of Verizon. The question is: Is it good enough for you for the price? With one big caveat (see below), for me the answer is yes.
The switching is not perfect, especially on roadtrips. I believe there is a learning algorithm baked in, which includes localized geofencing. But while this improves things over time in routine places, I don't think it works so well the first time you go elsewhere. Gratefully, at least for now, there are leaked -- and not officially supported -- dialer codes to force switching between Sprint and TMO when you must.
Coming from unlimited makes for a paradigm shift because now I pay for cell network data by the megabyte. This is very cost-effective for someone who can stay on WiFi most of the time. I do, so my bills are very low. But if you cannot do that, and you are a heavy data user, this plan is not for you.
The big caveat for me right now is that Marshmallow reportedly breaks data service on TMO Band 12, which is what reaches into my office building with Lollipop 5.1.1. That is why I am in no hurry to upgrade to 6.0 unless and until this gets fixed. B12 coverage is increasingly a big deal for TMO's network footprint. So without it, much of the benefit of a dual network would go away.
I switched from t mobile unlimited. Whenever I'm on sprint on a call, data doesn't work so I manually force the phone to be on t mobile literally all the time which kind of defeats the purpose of having another network. I honestly don't think project fi is a significant improvement over just having t mobile. Adding sprint to fi is kind of like giving a crutch for a dwarf to a normal sized person. The reason I will stay on fi is because I don't believe Google well stop at t mobile and sprint only.
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Been on fi for a few months now and overall it's been great. My bill has been a couple of bucks less than my prepaid $30/mo tmobile plan. Even though sprint has fairly good coverage in my area, I mostly connect to tmobile networks.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be happy with just the sprint network. Even though sprint has about the same # of cell towers in my area, signal strength between sprint towers seems to drop off rapidly compared to tmobile's towers. To be competitive, sprint needs to have more than twice the cell tower density to compare to tmobile's coverage. But it's still good to know I have sprint as a backup.
darthmtb said:
Project Fi is something I wish everybody had a chance to experience. Honestly it is one of the best cell providers in the US. Customer service is amazing, the cell service is great, maybe a few things here and there, but an overall really good experience for this being a beta. Google is doing a really good job! Keep it up
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I'd love to join Fi but t-mobile gave me such a good plan (grandfather discount). It will be a big lost if I leave.
I've been on Fi for about 5 months and have used it all over the US, South America, Europe and India. When roaming outside the US, it works exactly like the T-Mobile service it replaced. When I'm home and it runs on Sprint, it sucks. Phone doesn't ring and I miss texts. My service is actually better when I put the SIM card in a T-Mobile phone that can't switch to Sprint.
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i did sign up to fi, and got invited. and i did tell them j wanted to use fi. so they sent me a sim, and the "gifts". but i have no wifi at home, and i average about 25-40gb a month in data usage(tmobile, unlimited). i did the math in my head and it just didnt make any sense to me to switch. i definitely would, but the data costs are just to high. so i wrote them explaining about my data use, and they thanked me. and i havent been bugged by them in the last 2 months at all.
I'm on Verizon unlimited old plan and with great regret decided to try out Fi since they are increasing the price. I don't think anyone can match Verizon's network and I'm paying a reasonable $55 incl taxes. I wish I used more data, I hear people use 6-10GB on average on these unlimited plans, I guess I don't travel as much.
I am sort of afraid what Fi will mean since its after all a beta service. As an MVNO it is not price competitive, $10/GB is a lot for an MVNO to charge, Cricket is much better pricing, but I dont have their signal at home.
I'm glad to see the positive experiences with Fi. I ordered my Nexus 6 and Fi SIM card at lunch today and will activate Fi in a couple weeks once I get a credit back from T-mobile and can properly close my account with them. I'm looking forward to saving about $60 a month with Fi.
I've been activated since June. I came from T-mobile, so the change was all benefit for me in terms of coverage. I came from a Nexus 5 which doesn't have band 12 support. It was nice to be able to use T-Mobiles band 12 once I was on fi with the Nexus 6.
I rarely see sprint in my area, since T-Mobile is much better, but when I get out into the country, I have been connected to sprint where I used to have nothing at all. That's a plus. Also, sprint service allows roaming on Verizon 1x towers, and I have been connected to Verizon a few times.
I got a Fi invite instantly yesterday.
My N6 is stock unrooted Lollipop LMY48T, and uses my Verizon unlimited data SIM, my T-Mobile "WalmartPlan" $30 5gig SIM, or my cricket/aio prepaid SIM, depending.
I only use Google Voice through Hangouts for all my calls, so unlimited talk is not important to me.
If I order a Fi SIM, will I still be able to switch Sims freely or does the phone get locked to Fi only ?
I have heard some rumor that if I accept a Marshmallow OTA or sideload the M images, I will lose T-Mobile band12 LTE. Hope that is not true, since T-Mobile seems to be moving from band4 to band12 everywhere now.
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trent999 said:
I have heard some rumor that if I accept a Marshmallow OTA or sideload the M images, I will lose T-Mobile band LTE. Hope that is not true, since T-Mobile seems to be moving from band4 to band12 everywhere now.
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The loss of data on Band 12 has been reported by several users who flashed the Marshmallow build. Apparently the difference is in the radio module, because some of them have reported that Band 12 data service is restored by flashing back to one of the latest Lollipop radios on top of the new build.
We don't know if this is by design or a bug.
I have no personal experience myself because I remain on 5.1.1 build LYZ28M.
Seems like going to Marshmallow would be a huge problem for Fi users, then, unless Fi doesn't use band12 LTE?
For quite a while the Nexus6 was almost the only phone out that would support T-Mobile band12, except for a couple of Samsung's. Big part of why I bought mine.
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trent999 said:
Seems like going to Marshmallow would be a huge problem for Fi users, then, unless Fi doesn't use band12 LTE?
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Yes, it is a big open question right now. Google and Fi management have been silent about it. The issue may or may not be related to Google's need to certify the new Nexus devices for use on the TMO network directly (using T-Mobile SIMs). We don't know how these requirements relate to the Fi-TMO MVNO agreement, if at all.
It may be that there is just a bug in the Marshmallow 6.0 radio.
trent999 said:
If I order a Fi SIM, will I still be able to switch Sims freely or does the phone get locked to Fi only ?
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Several Verizon users have reported (a thread in Q&A section) difficulty returning to VZW from Fi.
I understand that volte is not supported on the 6p when it comes to using at&t.
How is the quality of calls when it comes to being dropped to 3g or h+? Right now I have T-Mobile and I like them but their coverage is struggle in my area especially at work and I'm extremely thinking about switching to at&t. The only thing holding me back is volte which sucks. I dont care much about wifi calling as I don't even use it currently with T-Mobile. Can you at least surf the web while on a call? Obviously not over LTE but over 3g/h± ? Thanks
1. Calls are no different in quality for me. I had a AT&T branded note 4 with volte.
2. Yes i can surf the web while on a phone call on 3g/H/H+. The only ones that can't are cdma carriers. Verizon/sprint and any of their mvno's.
chevanlol360 said:
I understand that volte is not supported on the 6p when it comes to using at&t.
How is the quality of calls when it comes to being dropped to 3g or h+? Right now I have T-Mobile and I like them but their coverage is struggle in my area especially at work and I'm extremely thinking about switching to at&t. The only thing holding me back is volte which sucks. I dont care much about wifi calling as I don't even use it currently with T-Mobile. Can you at least surf the web while on a call? Obviously not over LTE but over 3g/h± ? Thanks
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I'm not sure about how it works on at&t but on Verizon volte works great. I can be on a phone call and surf the web over LTE. If you're not in a good service area it can be annoying because it will drop calls when you lose LTE service and go to 3g and obviously volte doesn't work on 3g. I live in a major city so this really isn't an issue for me for the most part.
I also came from a ATT branded Note 4 on ATT. VOLTE stopped the second the 6p booted with the ATT SImcard. I had no issues with non-volte voice quality, And Voice+data has always worked with ATT's GSM network. I did end up switching to Verizon simply for VOLTE. Along with the other VOLTE features. Like the faster dialing..etc.
NickOlsen8390 said:
I also came from a ATT branded Note 4 on ATT. VOLTE stopped the second the 6p booted with the ATT SImcard. I had no issues with non-volte voice quality, And Voice+data has always worked with ATT's GSM network. I did end up switching to Verizon simply for VOLTE. Along with the other VOLTE features. Like the faster dialing..etc.
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You swapped to VZW just for VoLTE?
pejhod said:
You swapped to VZW just for VoLTE?
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Honestly, It was the faster dialing. (From the time you hit dial to the time it's actually ringing)
I'm an engineer for an Internet/Phone provider. And do a lot of test dials from my cell phone. Waiting ~10 seconds for the call to actually reach 180 progress was bugging me. ATT's HD voice switch did the same call in ~1sec, Just as VZW does. Sounds petty, I know. But it was driving me crazy.
So anyone know how to enable wifi calling and hd voice using 6P on AT&T?
So maybe someone could give me some pointers. I recently switched to T-mobile and purchased an unlocked MOTO Z play. The battery life on that phone was amazing but I was getting zero reception in my office which is a major issue. So after talking with T-Mobile the tech guy told me my phone didn't support 700Mhz, 2100mhz and band 12. Now I might have some of that info confused, but his suggestion was to purchase a different device. SO I grabbed a V20. So far I like the phone, but the battery doesn't even compare to the Moto Z play, and I understand why. But my issue is, even with this phone I'm not getting better reception in my office. My only work around is wifi calling which this phone does have ( The Moto Z play does not have wifi calling for T-mobile, apparently T-mobile doesn't support wifi calling for phones they don't sell in their retail stores ).
Wifi Calling in my office is still hit more miss, but It works fine for receiving texts which is very important to me while at work. I'm in the Dayton, Ohio market and when I've searched for coverage maps showing band 12, I do see some kind of coverage in Dayton, but It's not clear if It's active or not. I guess this band 12 will make penetrating walls easier for office reception. So far, when I run Network Cell Info app, I never see band 12. Ever. Could someone shed some light on why I'm not picking this band up? When I go outside it's on band 4.. and I'm right downtown In Dayton near the Highway.
designinme said:
So maybe someone could give me some pointers. I recently switched to T-mobile and purchased an unlocked MOTO Z play. The battery life on that phone was amazing but I was getting zero reception in my office which is a major issue. So after talking with T-Mobile the tech guy told me my phone didn't support 700Mhz, 2100mhz and band 12. Now I might have some of that info confused, but his suggestion was to purchase a different device. SO I grabbed a V20. So far I like the phone, but the battery doesn't even compare to the Moto Z play, and I understand why. But my issue is, even with this phone I'm not getting better reception in my office. My only work around is wifi calling which this phone does have ( The Moto Z play does not have wifi calling for T-mobile, apparently T-mobile doesn't support wifi calling for phones they don't sell in their retail stores ).
Wifi Calling in my office is still hit more miss, but It works fine for receiving texts which is very important to me while at work. I'm in the Dayton, Ohio market and when I've searched for coverage maps showing band 12, I do see some kind of coverage in Dayton, but It's not clear if It's active or not. I guess this band 12 will make penetrating walls easier for office reception. So far, when I run Network Cell Info app, I never see band 12. Ever. Could someone shed some light on why I'm not picking this band up? When I go outside it's on band 4.. and I'm right downtown In Dayton near the Highway.
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Some people reported an issue with getting on band 12. You can try this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=69836400
I'm in NE Ohio and switching to band 12 works automatically for me. I'm not sure why some have an issue and some don't.
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I have ATT. Earlier this year I noticed that my service was pretty bad. At home I would not get service and if I did, it would go on/off. My wife has the Note 5 and she does not have that problem. At the time I had the LeeCo Le Pro 3 phone. I thought it was the phone because I dropped it a few times. So when the OP5 came out, I bought it on the first day. When I got it, I noticed that the problem was still there. I called att and the rep said it was because they turned off the 2g signal at the beginning of the year and the 3g/4g in my area was poor. The reason my wife's Note 5 don't have this issue was because her phone supports wifi calling and mine didn't. The only way to get a new phone.
So is there a way to test to see how good my reception is on the phone compared to my wife's phone?
The OnePlus 5 also supports WiFi calling. At least on T-Mobile, I have no problems. The options are in the SIM settings.
To test cell reception, you can download an app on the play store on both phones to give you a number. Just search "cell reception" or "signal strength". I have not personally use any app.
Try LTE Discovery on both phones.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.simplyadvanced.ltediscovery
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Devhux said:
Try LTE Discovery on both phones.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.simplyadvanced.ltediscovery
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Can you help me figure out what it means?
OP5 :
LTE : N/A
HSPA+: -130.0 dBm
Att Note 5
LTE: -118.0 dBm
GSM: -113.0 dBm
Pretty much what the AT&T rep said. - 130dBm is a completely unusable 3G (HSPA) signal. The Note 5 has a barely adequate LTE signal, and the 2G (GSM) signal is very poor too.
In general, signals below - 115dBm or so will lead to dropped/choppy calls. The Note 5 might have a slightly better antenna (allowing for the weak LTE signal), but it's still very poor.
Unfortunately, I believe AT&T is similar to the Canadian carriers I use, in that VoLTE or WiFi calling is only available for some of the devices they sell. Sadly this doesn't help your case as you'd probably need Wi-Fi calling to have reliable service where you are
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I had the same problem with Cricket (which uses the AT&T network). I wouldn't be able to make or receive calls in half the rooms in my apartment. I switched to Project Fi and then when I got the OnePlus to MintSim (which uses the T-Mobile network). WiFi calling does work on this phone with MintSim/TMobile although the cell signal is also very strong. You probably don't have any good options that involve staying on AT&T. If you have a contract and can't switch then you would need a phone that supports WiFi calling for AT&T.
On my old Nexus 6P with Google Fi, T-Mobile's VoLTE never worked. I just got a Pixel 2 and it actually works! I didn't think it would ever be a thing with Google Fi being an MVNO. I've now made several phone calls and it never switched off LTE. The calls went through and had excellent quality. And I had LTE data available during the call to surf the web, etc. None of this worked on my 6P. It would switch to 3G, and I'd have no data.
Are you sure you're on VoLTE and not just connected to T-Mo? On T-Mo you can do simultaneous voice and data. When connected to Sprint's CDMA network it isn't possible and you lose data. I'm certainly not trying to discredit you and it's awesome if it is doing VoLTE, but it could be a difference between being on Sprint vs T-Mo.
How can you tell it's VoLTE though? I'm pretty much locked to TMo, using FiSwitch, and I have always been able to use LTE in a call, through N6P to Pixel to Pixel 2 now.