Fed up with costly mobile providers? Switching to these networks may save you a lot of money.
Whether you're a long-time work-from-home employee, or a world traveler who only occasionally makes international calls, Google Fi is an easy way to buy small amounts of data and not have to pay for too much.
You pay $20 for one line, plus $10 per gigabyte of data, whether you're in the US or traveling in one of the 200-plus supported countries. It's also prorated, so if you don't use a whole gigabyte, you won't get charged for a whole gigabyte. I recommend you turn off mobile data in your phone's menu at home to ensure that you're always using Wi-Fi.
Google Fi uses T-Mobile's and US Cellular's 4G LTE and 5G networks. It'll throttle your data after you pass a certain monthly threshold: 15 gigabytes for the base tier, and 22 gigabytes for the unlimited plans. At least Google is clear about it. Data after 6 GB is free on a one-phone-line plan, so you won't get a surprise giganto bill if you lose track of your data use.
It works with more than just Google phones now, including certain Huawei, Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, and Apple models, but its iOS support is still in beta, and 5G isn't supported on the iPhone 12. If you're using an iPhone, Fi won't switch between networks for best call quality, which is a feature that's a big chunk of its appeal.