Reduce Your Cell Phone Bill to $19 a Month

Published on November 8, 2011

This seems almost too good to be true.  Seeming newcomer Republic Wireless is offering unlimited talk, text, and data "hybrid" mobile phone service for just $19/month.  

The service relies on available Wi-Fi networks, to which the user has access, falling back on Sprint's nationwide network when Wi-Fi is not available.  Republic estimates that Americans have Wi-Fi access about 60% of the time, and employs a "Cellular Usage Index" to monitor their subscribers' balance of activity across the two channels, and to let their customers know when their use of cellular, versus Wi-Fi, usage exceeds their "fair use threshold".  Even then, the site's current language is soft, indicating that the subscriber has a comfortable amount of time to adjust their usage habits, and that one could use a great deal of cellular data before reaching this threshold.  Specifically, "you could consume 550 minutes, send 150 texts, and download 300 megabytes of data without crossing the community’s fair use threshold."

Hybrid cellular not your cup of tea?  Geek | Chicago's partners are also offering the following deals.