Poor man's guide to a cell plan.

[ckl]

Hello.

I would just like to share my experience with setting a non-standard cell plan for my daughter (pre-teen). My main goal was to have communication with her for emergency purposes or to communicate her whereabouts when away from home.

So, in summary, other than the cost of the phone, plan comes out to $15/month:

1. Unlocked Samsung galaxy s3 off craiglist (about $100).

2. $45 90 days 1GB plan = $15/month for 333MB of data. Actually less than that with auto-pay.

3. Fongo

4. Hangouts for messaging.

Since I have not setup a data only plan with Public Mobile before, I just wanted to point out that even though I wanted ONLY data, I was forced to choose a phone number. That tripped me up a bit but I just accepted whatever number was offered and it proceeded fine. This took about 10 minutes.

After the sim was activated, I plugged it into the phone and booted it up, went through the Google account setup, then added the APN and service started to work. Then I setup the wifi access to my home router. Took all of 15 minutes.

Downloaded Fongo off the Google Play Store, and set it up with a phone number. Add the important Mom/Dad contacts and done. That took all of 5 minutes.

The result is that I'm very impressed with this setup. We use hangouts for messaging/video calls and fongo for voice calls. I'm particularly impressed with how well the Fongo voice quality is and how seemlessly it works in Android for handling calls. However, it seems to keep an icon in the notification area and my daughter accidentally exited the app from there disabling the voice call capability. Since there is wifi at school and at home, she won't be using up her 1GB data allotment unless she's out of range of wifi. Even then, at 333MB per month, that equates to about 500 minutes of voice calling or a ton of messaging. The only thing she has to worry about is surfing the web or streaming youtube when not in wifi range. I taught her to not do that stuff unless there is wifi.

The only downside is that cellular SMS is not available... that is an extra in the Fongo app. That is fine for now since I don't want her using the phone to chat up a storm with her friends...

The other options I could have taken was to eliminate Fongo and just use Hangouts to handle both messaging and voice calls. The downside to this is that Hangouts only voice calls other hangouts users, so she really can't call anybody outside the realm of that app.

So what can you do with a $15/month cell phone plan? Fongo allows you to call free and unlimited to any of the listed cities in Canada. Currently, all the major cities in Canada are free and you can call these cities from anywhere in the world where there is data access (ie. wifi). It also comes with voicemail. Hangouts lets you message from anywhere in the world where you have data access (ie. wifi) except China where google services is blocked by the Great Firewall of China.

So that's how I did it and if you have any comments or suggestions let me know.

Thanks.

FYI, I don't work for Fongo, Public Mobile, or Samsung.

[jairolevi]

Hi @ckl

Install the "Dialer" app for "Hangouts", that enables free calling to North America. 🙂

Thank you,

JL

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@ckl wrote:

...The downside to this is that Hangouts only voice calls other hangouts users, so she really can't call anybody outside the realm of that app....

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[ckl]

@jpmoney Well, if Shaw is going to do what you say they are and keep prices the same, then maybe at that point I will consider going back to Wind. As it stands now, the Wind service in Vancouver still has coverage holes, the data speed is mediocre, and more importantly, the latency is outrageous. I suffered through this for 4 years and realized that while unlimited is great, my priority was the speed at which the data shows up on my screen... not the amount. My biggest peeves about Wind was waiting for the information to show up on the screen. The other was not having service when I needed it.

[jpmoney]

I set up an account because I cannot agree with what the Canadian government has allowed. This was supposed to remain affordable and unlimited. These prices are a joke regardless if your using fongo or not. There is no retail presence and still people are paying Internet prices like fido.com best plan that I had for data. This service should be unlimited and with no retail the gb allotment should at least be doubled for the same price. You can get 12gb for 90 days for 50 dollars a month 150 for 90 days. On Wind you get unlimited everything calling in Canada and u.s and unlimited text and unlimited international text and unlimited data fair use which gives my package for 50 8gb fast and if you go over its a bit slower at peak times which I never had a problem anyways. We always have that 1 or 2 places with WiFi so to go over its difficult and when I did I had no real issues. Also wind is rolling out LTE very soon they were bought by Shaw Cable who will be keeping the pricing and unlimited the same and they have an agreement with Nokia who is building the LTE. I would suggest people set up a simple and get the best plan now so you will have it always. If a better one comes out I can jump on it and keep it for good. The speed can only get better and I only have some small issues in deep basements but that will be changing soon. Plus Videotron has some 700mhz which is what Roger's uses and will be a great boost for reception with data in rare occasions. Don't throw your money away. The top 3 are trying to juice people as much as they can especially when offering contracts. Why do you think the big 3 started offering unlimited calling (more than double than fido) Its because they know they're ripping people off and soon wind will be part of the big 4 and be competitive in performance and number 1 in pricing. Plus Shaw Cable will be focusing on Cellphones and bringing it's T.V to the phones like Shaomi and for wind customers for free. I am more than happy to share this info and go out of my way. Rogers fido bell and telus have abused Canadians with Crooked pricing and horrible customer service. I have never dealt with some of the most horrible and rude people ever in these companies. They're probably outsourcing to other countries these cheap crooks. Take care and join Windows. I am not affiliated with wind I just cannot stand crooks and ignorant people.

[NDesai]

Well done @ckl for a great guide and other users for sharing related options. 

Indeed this would be the best and cheapest option for kids and may be adults considering they will only use the phone for talking/texting. 

[jairolevi]

Hi @ckl

When I get an incoming call I get it via my SpeakOut SIM.

Usually I dont pick it up, but I just call back from Hangouts.  Calls to NA are FREE!

Since I set Hangouts to show my own phone number (the option is called "outbound caller id") people recognize its me and they answer me when I return the call.

I would fully port my number from SpeakOut to PM if they offered Calls and Text Add-ons, I dont really need "Unlimited" calls.

Thank you,

JL

PS: I still dont have a reliable way to do something similar with Text.  I used Textra for a while, but you have trouble receiving verification SMS's.  So for now I just receive Text on my SpeakOut SIM.  Mostly of my messaging is done via WhatsApp anyways.

[ckl]

@jairolevi

Interesting setup. So you use Hangouts Dialer to call anywhere in NA. Then if you get an incoming call, does it come through the Hangouts app? In other words, does the Hangouts Dialer/Hangouts intercept the incoming call and channel it to the Hangouts app?

[BAL]

In my humble opinion, when you get dropped calls with Fongo, you are using their application, but not their services. The services are from Public Mobile. So, I doubt that the application would be responsable for the dropped calls. 

And I too, not working with any of the companies mentionned in this discussion. 

[ckl]

@srlawren @jairolevi I was just looking into this Hangouts Dialer a minute ago and I would have jumped on this immediately if only it accepted incoming calls. Too bad no Google Voice in Canada. In most cases, nothing beats the software that is made by the same company that makes the OS.

[ckl]

A lot of great options here...

[srlawren]

 @ckl I was going to point out that with Hangouts Dialer, you can call basically an Canadian or US number for free, not just people using Hangouts, but @jairolevi beat me to it!  However, for inbound, you're right that you can only get calls from other Hangouts users, unfortunately.  Americans can get a Google Voice number and use it with Hangouts to receive incoming calls from any number too, but we don't get that in Canada (boooooo!).

[jairolevi]

My current setup:

1. OnePlus X ( Dual Sim ) $320
2. Data: Public Mobile - $45 90 days 1GB plan = $15/month for 333MB of data. Actually less than that with auto-pay.
3. Incoming Calls and Incoming Texts: SpeakOut SIM - You load $25 bucks and they dont expire in a YEAR ( I need a real phone for texts verifications from apps mainly )
4. Hangouts for Canada calling (Free to North America calls 😞 Set up my SpeakOut number as Caller ID.
5. Skype for longdistance: Set up my SpeakOut number as Caller ID.

Data Plan is basically 15 bucks a month, minus autopay = $13 a month.

Plus SpeakOut prepaid, maybe $50 a YEAR.

Roughly about $17 a month.

Thank you,

JL.

[Jeremy_M]

Great life hack and discussion @ckl @BAL @samgabbay

Cheers,

Jeremy

[BAL]

Hi @ckl, I basically did the same thing with an iPhone 6. I have data only with Fongo and so far, everything works fine. I am really happy with this service and this company. Public Mobile is the only company (as far as I know) that allows to buy data only. And it is the only company that allows to use Wi-Fi first, and then PM if you are not in a Wi-Fi environment. The other companies will say, use your voice minutes, then you can use your Wi-Fi if our cellular coverage is poor. I am very happy with Public Mobile.

[danette77]

I'll second all of the comments about Next plus. I use it for both calling and texting over wi fi or data. Calling plans are super cheap and texting is free, plus they have Canadian numbers for every province. If you do decide to try something other than Fongo, it's a great option.

[ckl]

@Shazia_K Thanks very much!

[Shazia_K]

@ckl,

Thanks! I moved the entire topic to the discussion board 🙂

Cheers,

Shazia

[ckl]

Oops! I just noticed that this post should have been in the Discussion forum, not the Phones & Hardware forum. Mods, please move if necessary.

[samgabbay]

Textnow is a great option. So is Textplus. Now if you want a much more expensive option Line2 Is good. but i use to use TextNow and TextPlus. Both do a fantastic job. Fongo just badly needs a revamp and like said those **bleep** bugs straghtened. Let me know what you decide 🙂

[ckl]

@samgabbay Thanks for the info. I will have to keep an eye out for this. If it does not work out, I'll switch to Textnow.

[samgabbay]

Some disconnected after 4-6 minutes or lets say i was entering a Wi-Fi zone, then the call would disconnect. even dialing sometimes never connected at the end. Sometimes person on the other end does not hear me, etc. The Fongo app needs bugs straightened out, and needs a major revamp.

[ckl]

That's interesting. How long were you on a call when you got disconnected? I'll have to test this since my initial testing of Fongo calling was less than a minute.

I was contemplating the choice between Fongo and Textnow. In hindsight, since Textnow has about 10million downloads vs Fongo's 0.1million, I should have went with Textnow.

[samgabbay]

Good Guide. I also had fongo but dropped it. Due to the call disconnects, Annoying technical support, Etc. Texting was 3$ a month but i always need my phone so fongo was unreliable.