Republic Wireless has announced a new promotion that will start on May 16 at 12:00 AM EST and will last through May 22, 2017 at 11:59 PM EST. The special offer will only be available for new customer accounts and/or new service lines on an existing customer account. Those that sign up for service during the specified time frame will receive 6 months of free service that includes up to 2GB/cellular 4G LTE data to use each month.
Republic Wireless operates as both a Sprint and T-Mobile MVNO. This promotion is only valid for service through T-Mobile's network.
Besides being a new customer, or a current customer activating a new line of service, you must also bring your own eligible device over to the network to qualify for the offer.
Eligible devices include the following:
- Alcatel A30
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL
- Huawei Ascend 5W
- Nexus 5X by LG
- Motorola Nexus 6
- Huawei Nexus 6P
- Moto G4
- Moto G5 Plus
- Moto G4 PLAY
- Moto G4 PLUS - Deal get one for $219.99
- Moto X Pure Edition
- Moto Z
- Moto Z Play
- Samsung Galaxy J3
- Samsung Galaxy S6
- Samsung Galaxy S7
- Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
This offer will only be available while SIM card supplies last. Republic Wireless has not said how many SIM cards it plans to sell, but they do say that once they sell out, no other SIM cards will be eligible for the offer.
The free service that Republic Wireless is offering is normally priced at $30/month for unlimited talk, text and 2 GB of high speed data. Those that want more monthly data with their plan can still signup and pay the difference in costs. So if you want the $45 plan with 4 GB of data, you'd pay $15/month. Taxes and fees are not included with the promotion, so even with the free monthly plan, you can expect to pay a few dollars every month. To get the promotion you must also pay for your first month of service with Republic Wireless, and after that months 2-7 will be free of charge.
For more information about this promotion, or to signup for service, head on over to Republic Wireless.
I heard about this promo via CNET’s Cheapskate blog on the 16th, and signed up for it. Per the RW blog & forums, one can also select one of their less expensive plans; however, the $30/month plan is the highest-tier one can go and get the free service for months 2-7 (after paying for the first month). I had a bad experience with a MintSIM 3-month promo last fall (just couldn’t get a T-Mobile-based signal away from WiFi), so I hope this works out better. Per the RW forums, it sounds like their customer service people are committed to working with customers having issues with weak T-Mobile signals (which might unofficially extend to offering CDMA SIMs to customers who can’t get RW to work any other way). If all else fails, I can probably get a refund of the $20-$30 for the first month’s service and try something else (like going back to Tello, or perhaps going back to PureTalk USA and trying their 1 month free service promo — and picking a plan with more data than the last time I was with them).
Thank you for this notice… I have been thinking about giving Tmobile another try.