Republic Wireless has added some new wireless plans and I have a hard time seeing how they'll appeal to anyone but we'll get more into that in a moment. Republic has also eliminated one of its plans. The $5 plan that offered unlimited talk and text that only worked on Wi-Fi has been terminated (updated: a few site readers have commented that this plan is still available (at least for now) but it is not an option at checkout, and can only be signed up for with the Republic Wireless app. The plan is also not listed on the Republic Wireless website). With services like Google Hangouts available where users can place calls and texts over Wi-Fi for free, it's hard to justify paying $5 for something one can get for free and I suspect a majority of people felt the same and weren't signing up for the plan, hence its disappearance. The company has also given names to their preexisting plans as well as their new ones, and they are named based on the amount of data they offer going from XS to 3XL. Republic Wireless's new plans are as follows:
- XL - 3GB 4G LTE data $55/month
- XXL - 4GB 4G LTE data $70/month
- 3XL - 5GB 4G LTE data $85/month
All Republic Wireless plans include unlimited talk and text. With these new plans Republic Wireless appears to be charging premium pricing for coverage that's on Sprints network. It is important to note however, that Republic Wireless does at least offer you a refund for any unused data you have at the end of a billing cycle. Even with a refund, its hard to justify any of the pricing listed here. There are simply too many cheaper options available elsewhere to the consumer. The plans would be more impressive if they topped out at $45-$55/month to be more in line with what competitors charge for 5GB of LTE data. On top of that, Republic Wireless does not support BYOSD, ((Bring Your Own Sprint Device)) and so if you plan to switch service to them you'll have to invest in one of three new phones, the Motorola E, G or X.
Republic Wireless's other preexisting plans are as follows:
- XS - Unlimited Talk and Text $10/month
- S - 500 MB 4G LTE Data $17.50/month
- M - 1GB 4G LTE Data $25/month
- L - 2GB 4G LTE Data $40/month
All plans include unlimited talk and text.
I have to say I am very disappointed in Republic Wireless's new plans, and do not like the direction the company is headed in. The company used to offer much cheaper plans that were a much better value, but ever since they began offering refundable data, they have gotten more expensive, particularly if you need to use up all of the data your plan includes. At the lower price points of $25 and below, the company does at least offer something reasonable to those out there that don't require a lot of data. So what do you all think of these new plans? Am I missing something with my analysis or do you agree that the new price points are rather absurd?
About Republic Wireless
Republic Wireless offers service on Sprint's network. The company uses a Wi-Fi first approach for its cell phone plans. Calls and texts are placed whenever possible over Wi-Fi, and when Wi-Fi is unavailable or a customer moves out of Wi-Fi range, the cell phone seamlessly transitions over to Sprint's cellular network without any interaction from the end user. The Wi-Fi to cellular hand off ideally occurs without a loss of service or dropped call for the user.
It’s odd that everyone goes along with the definition of a “high data user”. In fact many RW users consume 10 Gb of data and more every month, and their bills stay at $14. The reason, others pointed out to me, is that they chose to use WIFI data, not cell data. Many very high data users are still doing just fine at RW. Using big data is not a problem. It’s where they get that data that makes all the difference. Cell data is expensive no matter where you buy it but unlimited WIFI data is free and RW users take advantage of that fact. In that sense the article complains about high data charges but never makes any distinction as to the source. In that way this article is intentionally very misleading.
Nice try at a deliberately misleading point. “WiFi data” is data paid for by somebody else. We’re comparing apples-to-apples: cell data to cell data. Like anybody else who talks about the cost of data plans.
Take this nonsense elsewhere.
Actually, he’s pretty accurate, and it’s the very model that provides cost savings with Republic. I use around 1 gb of cell data per month. I use a whole lot more Wi-Fi data. But I’m buying home internet anyway, so if I can offload my data at home and at work on the phone, and limit it otherwise, why not enjoy the savings?
The average Republic Wireless customer’s bill last month was $13.75, including data. Because of that I assumed the average RW customer used very little data. But when I suggested this a number responded that they used well over 5 Gb EVERY month and their bill was still in the $13 range. The reason is that they have chosen to use WIFI data not cell data. Pretty smart use of a very inexpensive cell phone plan. So when I read articles like this one I always suspect Verizon is actually writing the copy.
So what you’re really saying is that no one is signing up for those higher priced data plans that I’ve criticized because they are too expensive?
FYI, at this moment in time I do not allow sponsored posts as you’re trying to imply. If I do at some point in the future, the article will clearly be marked as sponsored.
All of the tools are readily available on this website for readers to draw the exact same conclusions as I have.
I’d like to add that several MVNOs offer unlimited LTE data at prices far cheaper than that $85 (max price) 5GB 4G LTE data plan Republic Wireless is offering. Data refund or not, at that maximum price, that plan and a few others do not make sense for the consumer in any way.
https://bestmvno.com/unlimited-data-plans/
To get an idea of the caliber of people you’re dealing with, JAGUAR6CY, or ckh on the republic wireless forums, claims that people who use over 1GB of cell data must have some sort of mental illness or addiction issue.
To me it’s a matter of truth in advertising versus deceptive pricing practices. Republic is just spelling out the price buckets upfront plain as day for all to see. Most of the other wireless providers and MVNO’s tout their unlimited data pricing plans, then specify in the fine print that the plan throttles your data once you reach that so-called unlimited data level. Case in point is Sprint who just announced a $20 unlimited data plan which actually provides 1GB of high speed data and then throttles you to 2G data speeds thereafter.
I used to be with VZW with a grandfathered unlimited data plan and generally consumed 3 to 5 GB of data per month at a cost of $75 per month including an employee discount. RW provides an app and tools that allow you to minimize your data usage and block data consumption on an app by app basis. Result is I’ve increased WiFi offload and reduced my high speed data consumption to less than 300 MB per month since switching to RW and their 2.0 pricing plan. Now, my monthly RW bills are around $15 per month including all taxes and fees.
RW is not for people that require high amounts of high speed data. But for me and others that require 1.5 to 2.0 GB of data per month or less, it can be a great deal. Freedom of choice is good!
It’s odd that everyone goes along with the definition of a “high data user”. In fact many RW users consume 10 Gb of data
Actually, the price is even MORE than $85/month.
It’s actually in excess of $100/month!! OUCH!!!
Republic Wireless tacks on an additional 20-30% in taxes, fees and surcharges. I’ve read many articles recently across the internets about this very same topic – the outrageous pricing that this company tries to desperately hide in slick marketing as “a refund plan”
Their 4G plan, with 5 GB of data, was $40. They raised that to $85 ($10 base $15/gb of data x5 = $85). That’s 112% price increase. Their 3G plan, with 5 GB of data, was $25. Then, they raised THAT to $85. A whopping 240%!! Can we say PRICE GOUGING!!
RW is trying to get rich quick by charging 50% more than Google Fi for the same mobile data. Google Fi only charges $10/gb. And before the fanboys come to the rescue, yes, Fi charges $20 base price BUT…you get SO MUCH MORE with Fi than RW could ever offer. RW is definitely out of their league. With only 300k customers after 4 years of being in business, I think the consumers have spoken – “Avoid Republic Wireless”. There are far more reliable and far more value-priced plans out there, even with the Big Boys.
I think the piece that the headline doesn’t communicate well is that Republic is a very, very affordable carrier for people who are not heavy data users. I use very about 1 gb of cell data a month or less, my wife uses about 100mb per month. She always gets a refund on her data, so her bill was around $12 plus taxes. Mine worked out to right at the $25 level, since I used a full 1 gb last month.
Again (and yes, I’m a Republic customer) the savings are very much for the lower end users who can offload more and more onto Wi-Fi. I think the break point is around 2 gb. Below 2 gb of cell data, Republic is hard to beat. Above, there are lower cost options.
So, it’s the slant of the headline that is problematic. Cellular data hogs won’t do well with Republic. Data misers will do very, very well on Republic. I also think you way, way, way underestimated the value of the Republic Refund.
Oh yeah, jacking up prices 240% is SUCHHHHHH a value. Oh yeah, charging $15/gb of mobile data is SOOOOO affordable in comparison to what others are charging.
And it’s interesting how you have a “problem” with the slant of the headline; however, when Republic does it with their grossly-skewed customer data and marketing spin to fool customers, you seem to be okay with that. Hmmm…
No, the new plans are a very good value for the low end user. They are not for a cellular data piggy. If you’re a data piggy go somewhere else. But if you’re willing (or are) a data miser, Republic is basically unbeatable.
And yes, the headline reflects the perception of the data hogs, but not that of data misers.
Here’s the thing for high end users, the prices went up a lot. For lower cell data users, they went down. It’s not marketing spin, it’s basically setting up plans to encourage users to actually do what they intended all along. Keep costs low by leveraging Wi-Fi. Those who abused their old plans cost themselves that option.
So, are you a cellular data piggy hog Mr. Bevalaccua?
The national average for data use is around 1.8GB/month. So “heavy data users” as you put it should be well, WELL over that figure. Except that’s not what you mean. Because the Republic Wireless prices are so expensive, you’re redefined “heavy data user” to mean over 1GB.
If the national average is 1.8gb that’s about the break even point. Users below about 2 gb will generally save with Republic. Users above that point will generally not save with Republic.
Republic’s target has always been the lower cellular usage users. What this pricing set up does it is benefits those users, and encourages them to be with Republic. It does not benefit high end users (I’ll define as above 2gb), and those users are almost always better off elsewhere.
I rarely bust 1gb on cell, and that was true when I was on the $25 plan, or now on the 2.0 plans.
So, despite your intention to put words in my mouth, I think that it’s key that the break point is around 2 gb.
Here’s the thing, an occasional users that maybe one month a year hits 3gb, but normally only uses 1 gb may still be better off with Republic, paying for that one additional month.
So, are Republic prices expensive? Again, that depends. For me, find me a plan that’s any good that actually beats Republic? I have yet to find one.
For someone using 3gb or more of data, yes, there are cheaper plans. I’m not that hooked on my phone. I don’t need to stream Pandora or Youtube on the go.
an interesting side note here:
– if RW’s new business play is successful they will take low-data-users away from other carriers (why pay more than $25/mo elsewhere if you use less than 1GB?)
– most other carriers use a breakage model; so they rely on the AVERAGE user consuming far less than the advertised data allotment each month (just like RW’s old plans did)
– if those low-data-users leave other carriers (coming to RW and similar carriers, including google fi), the breakage model those carriers use will have a new average usage per month; the average actual usage will go UP since fewer low-data-users remain on those plans
– the result will be that the other carriers generate less profit from those plans since the revenues are reduced faster than the data usage is reduced when these low-data-users leave for “cheaper pastures”
– inevitably those other carriers will push to increase the average revenue per users once again; in effect RW (and carriers like them, including google fi) will have caused folks on OTHER CARRIERS to pay more per month without actually improving the profits of their competitors. they will cause the per GB cost to effectively increase on other carriers (based on the type of analysis used in this article anyway – the real cost won’t change but the perceived cost will for breakage model plans)
The real question, at least for me, is how those other carriers might be working to prevent this. Maybe they’ll need to further price-gouge MVNOs? Or perhaps they’ll need to switch to a usage model as well (like RW and Fi)? They won’t stand still, I’m sure of that.
-bit
(RW ambassador, directly expert, etc etc)