When Project Fi was introduced in 2015 it was a cool concept at a cheap cost but for quite some time now other cell phone carriers have outdone Fi in pricing. Today Project Fi announced Bill Protection which essentially makes Fi competitive for some people. If you’re a heavy data user or if you’ve a large family then you might want to take a look at Fi again.
after 30 days of active line, we’ll both get $20 Fi credit
or just use the code 5W5863
Bill Protection Explained
Traditionally Fi has charged $10/GB (domestic or international) which resulted in a heavy user paying hundreds of dollar for Fi service. Now because of bill protection one pays $10/GB until their “data level” is reached and any data consumed then after is free.
In other words, there is a hard cap on how much you can be charged regardless of the amount of data you consume. This capped price depends solely on the number of lines you have. The number of lines you have determines the maximum data cost your account can be charged. This information has been elegantly displayed in the chart below.
Example: 1 line
If you have one line you pay $20 for call & text and you would pay $10/GB for first 6 GB. After 6 GB “data level” threshold has been met, bill protection feature would kick in, make addition data consumed free, and preventing you from being charged above 6 GB “data level” threshold.
Example: 2 line
If you have two lines then you will pay $20 for call & text of first line while the second only costs $15. In this scenario you would pay $10/GB for first 10 GB and any additional GB consumed is free. Overall you would pay $20+$15 = $35 for call and text plus a maximum data cost of $100 thus netting you a maximum combined cost of $135.
Is it really unlimited?
Yes but as expected there is throttling. The first 15 GB is uncapped on each line, then after data speed is capped at 256 kbps until next cycle for the line that exceeded 15 GB threshold. If you don’t want to get capped at 256 then you can contact Fi and pay $10/GB.
Are there any sweet spots?
The more lines you have the less it costs per line. For example, you pay $80 max for 1 unlimited line but for 6 unlimited lines one would on average pay $45.83/line. This information has been detailed out a table shared in a reddit post.
The other interesting sweet spot is that bill protection also works for international data (135+ countries) as well as data-only SIMs. Note that all data-only SIMs belonging to a single line share data restriction of said single line.
Overall Thoughts
I really like that Fi has finally entered unlimited data space. Fi has needed change in pricing for very long and this might just have been the thing to keep it competitive with other carriers. I think unlimited plan will be handy for frequent international travelers or those who are travelling internationally for an extended period of time.
I personally have T-mobile 55+ plan for unlimited data so Fi’s unlimited plan is not appealing to me. I will continue to keep Fi as a backup eSIM.
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