Google Fi is now offering a new way to buy phones: a subscription plan. Instead of buying a device outright, you can now sign up for a two-year contract, tack a few bucks onto your monthly bill, and get a phone to go with your service plan.
You have one entire device to pick from, the Pixel 4a (not the Pixel 5?). The basic contract is $9 a month for two years ($216 total), which will get you a Pixel 4a (MSRP $349) that is “yours to keep” at the end of the plan. From there, Google imagines you’ll keep paying the subscription fee and pick up a new device, with the company proposing that you “upgrade to a new Pixel after 2 years.”
There’s also an optional “device protection plan” for another $6 a month that Google says will “protect against accidental damage, loss or theft (except in NY), and out-of-warranty mechanical breakdown.” That $6 a month won’t actually get your phone repaired if something happens, however—there are deductibles on top of that. For the Pixel 4a, Google says it’s an extra $49 for a screen replacement, $79 for a mechanical breakdown, and $99 for a theft replacement. Google is primarily pitching that you pick up the service plan with the phone, which works out to $15 a month for two years, a total of ($360).
Google Fi is Google’s MVNO (Mobile virtual network operator) business. It resells cellular service from T-Mobile and US Cellular with a bunch of Google Voice-style features on top, like Web-based texts and voicemail. Fi offers two forms of billing: the first is a pay-as-you-go plan where your monthly bill is $20 for unlimited texts and calls plus $10 per GB of data you use. Google likes to call the billing “$10 per GB of data,” but data billing isn’t actually in 1GB increments; you’ll be billed down to the penny for exactly what you use.
The second option is a $70 “unlimited” plan that will get you 22GB of high-speed data per month, the usual free texts and calls, and 100GB of Google cloud storage. With either plan, there are also no extra fees for tethering or usage on additional data-only SIM cards. On the flexible plan, you still just pay for the data you use, and on the unlimited plan, anything goes until you hit your 22GB cap. Google Fi also just keeps working internationally in 200+ countries with no extra fees.
