Republic Wireless Initial Review

[Ian]

Does RW allow porting of an existing cellphone number and from say Sprint?

Also if 300MB is the monthly allowance is that enought for mild web browsing, checking stcks and weather and some emailing? (note this excludes ANY streaming useage).

[AndroidFoneFan]

I agree that ooma is a good choice. I have been using ooma since August '09 and I have been very happy with it. It is true that the start up cost is high, but IMHO it is worth the price. The ooma is currently available online from Walmart for $189.

One of the advantages of ooma, is that it can be placed in front of the router. Actually, you can use the ooma without a router, if you don't need the router for additional computers or other devices. The MagicJack Plus and NetTalk need to be plugged into a computer or a router. My ooma is plugged into the modem and my router is plugged into the ooma. That works great for me.

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So in order your system is, modem, ooma, router. And it work well without interfering with your internet?

[AndroidFoneFan]

Does RW allow porting of an existing cellphone number and from say Sprint?

Also if 300MB is the monthly allowance is that enough for mild web browsing, checking stocks and weather and some emailing? (note this excludes ANY streaming usage).

It depends on how often you check all of these things.
It may be enough if you check a few times a day, but if you check a dozen or more times a day, probably not.
The other thing is, do you have wifi? in any of the places you will be checking from, ie at home, work, friends house, can you get wifi access there so that when the phone is updating this information it can do it from wifi rather than cell.

Best thing to do is (if you have a smart phone now) download a data counting app and find out how much data you use monthly, how many minutes and how many text. If you exceed the RW limit, it probably will not work well for you, if you are below it, it might.

[GSMinCT]

It depends on how often you check all of these things.
It may be enough if you check a few times a day, but if you check a dozen or more times a day, probably not.
The other thing is, do you have wifi? in any of the places you will be checking from, ie at home, work, friends house, can you get wifi access there so that when the phone is updating this information it can do it from wifi rather than cell.

Best thing to do is (if you have a smart phone now) download a data counting app and find out how much data you use monthly, how many minutes and how many text. If you exceed the RW limit, it probably will not work well for you, if you are below it, it might.

The smartest thing to do would be to check current usage through OLAM/ MyWireless. I know I used to use 50-150mb (with tethering) on my E71, then I started at like 300MB on the Android phone, and went up into the 700MB range, now I'm at 500-900MB with the iPhone, but I'm sloppy and wasteful with the bandwidth usage, as I've downloaded apps OTA and such, and that includes a little bit of Pandora. It also depends on how a minute converts to data, as 500 minutes away from wifi is a LOT of minutes, so some of those could be put towards data.

[ShyGuy123]

“Russian Wireless” has very questionable ethics when it comes to customer communications, promises, and even in reneging on promises made to customers. They have plants (NARCS) – PUZZLER is one, who pose as customers, giving out “good marks” and dissing people who ask questions. Strange how they seem to know more info than RW admits themselves… They must be the “red-headed stepchildren” of employees and/or the management team. A really retarded way to run a business. They edit out negative comments in their user forum (even though many still exist, hate to see the ones they deleted). Being small, unethical, and unreliable is not a way for a startup to keep their customers or get new ones.
The parent company – Bandwidth.com:
Originally formed in 1999, Bandwidth.com (RW’s parent company) began as a home office start-up company in a spare bedroom of co-founder David Morken’s Park City, Utah home. His goal was to form a telecommunications procurement company that focused on 4 key points of quality: selection, savings, and service. Russian Wireless has 0 of the 4 key points down – it’s been almost 1 year since launch and their “business model” is still way below par.
I have seen comments from some of the mods – Tiggs & Jecca to name two – they stated, for all to view, that they didn’t have to identify themselves and that if I didn’t like it I could take my business elsewhere. The pics they show as representing themselves look like they were cut out of an old Sears catalog. Guess they are paranoid – I’d fear for my life too, if I had pissed off thousands of “customers”. They promised to treat their “beta users” right and even promised us 1st shot at the new phones. We were put in “Wave A”, but all of the new customers are getting the new phones first. The “loyal beta users are screwed again. Way to go “Russian Wireless”……why would anyone want to do business with a company that has such a poor attitude towards its customers. Bottom line – AVOID the secretive, Stalinist and Gestapo tactics of this “un-American company”! Why would anyone want to do business with a company that hides in the shadows and has no policy of transparency when trying to contact them?
I love what one of their own employees posted on a glassdoor review:
“Cons – Very unprofessional environment that allows unscrupulous behavior. I am still there but actively seeking to leave. (secretly) I would never voice any of this to management because I have witnessed what has happened to others when you do that. Management does not know the first thing about leadership. Employees are not treated well at all. No room for upward mobility or growth. Too many managers with big titles – I can’t figure out what some do except treat others bad.”

[Endeavor]

This is nonsense. I've posted tons of negative comments, and none have been deleted from their forums.

“Russian Wireless” has very questionable ethics when it comes to customer communications, promises, and even in reneging on promises made to customers. They have plants (NARCS) – PUZZLER is one, who pose as customers, giving out “good marks” and dissing people who ask questions. Strange how they seem to know more info than RW admits themselves… They must be the “red-headed stepchildren” of employees and/or the management team. A really retarded way to run a business. They edit out negative comments in their user forum (even though many still exist, hate to see the ones they deleted). Being small, unethical, and unreliable is not a way for a startup to keep their customers or get new ones.
The parent company – Bandwidth.com:
Originally formed in 1999, Bandwidth.com (RW’s parent company) began as a home office start-up company in a spare bedroom of co-founder David Morken’s Park City, Utah home. His goal was to form a telecommunications procurement company that focused on 4 key points of quality: selection, savings, and service. Russian Wireless has 0 of the 4 key points down – it’s been almost 1 year since launch and their “business model” is still way below par.
I have seen comments from some of the mods – Tiggs & Jecca to name two – they stated, for all to view, that they didn’t have to identify themselves and that if I didn’t like it I could take my business elsewhere. The pics they show as representing themselves look like they were cut out of an old Sears catalog. Guess they are paranoid – I’d fear for my life too, if I had pissed off thousands of “customers”. They promised to treat their “beta users” right and even promised us 1st shot at the new phones. We were put in “Wave A”, but all of the new customers are getting the new phones first. The “loyal beta users are screwed again. Way to go “Russian Wireless”……why would anyone want to do business with a company that has such a poor attitude towards its customers. Bottom line – AVOID the secretive, Stalinist and Gestapo tactics of this “un-American company”! Why would anyone want to do business with a company that hides in the shadows and has no policy of transparency when trying to contact them?
I love what one of their own employees posted on a glassdoor review:
“Cons – Very unprofessional environment that allows unscrupulous behavior. I am still there but actively seeking to leave. (secretly) I would never voice any of this to management because I have witnessed what has happened to others when you do that. Management does not know the first thing about leadership. Employees are not treated well at all. No room for upward mobility or growth. Too many managers with big titles – I can’t figure out what some do except treat others bad.”

[bizeemere]

Well, I can't answer to this Russian Wireless being nonsense, but I will tell you, from my perspective, just reading their forums alone, RW is pissing off alot of people. I'm not really surprised at all that you will see things like that. And for the record, I will say that they DO censor and delete posts, as that is what happened to me when I tried to help someone with his frustration of reaching somebody to get help. I have to agree with shyguy's assessment that there are plants and shills. When I started sharing what I had found from doing my google search, fanboys started swooping down on me in their forums to chastize me for giving people an alternative way to contact RW, despite the fact that ANYBODY could've done a google search, just like I did. That really turned me off to RW. And the admins and moderators did nothing to curtail it. If anything, they encouraged it by letting it happen. This company has alot of ethics problems. Whether it comes from the top or whether mid to low level management, it doesn't really matter. The fact that they treat people with such disrespect and disregard, just to get their 19 dollars a month is horrendous. There really is NO transparency or accountability at this company. They allow their employees to scurry around on their forums using fake names and you never know who you really are talking to. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the fact that they may be trying to keep spam and spammers, even those bots, from posting to their forums, but they are pretty heavy-handed over there. All in all, this is not how a new startup should behave if you are trying to break into the fierce and competitive cell phone market - regardless of what your gimmick or new fangled take on it is. Sure, they "may" have thousands of people in reserves that are chomping at the bit to get in one of these beta waves, but that doesn't give them the right to treat people so harshly. They best enjoy the few thousand customers they will have in these beta waves because I just have this gut feeling that once they open the general public, if they haven't reorganized how they do business with everyday customers, all hell is going to break loose for them. When they opened their B beta wave, I was a little surprised, but I guess I really shouldn't have been, to see people come out so quickly with their concerns about basic cell phone services missing and their complaints about not being able to reach somebody to speak to after they have exhausted all their efforts reading those screwed up forums. Seriously, if they think they have it bad dealing with people now, you just wait until they open up more of these beta waves and eventually to the general public. They are going to have a nightmare on their hands if they don't put some new management in place who can come up with a better plan for dealing with the consumers they so badly want to reach. With the mixed reviews written about RW and the mounds of comments that follow those articles, I really can't see RW amounting to anymore than a regional or speciality cell phone company with a few tens of thousands of customers.

[timtim2008]

wow. deep.. i got 4 more days left on my invite, im still undecided to join.

[efredmi]

I don't see it ethical to compare to "Russian" too. Russians did a lot of good things.
BTW I'm Russian and from Russia.
I don't want to start debate here about nations, because every nation has good and bads.
Just my 2 cents here.

Back to topic. I'm in wave F and if price of the phone was less or about 150 then i certainly would jumped but now I don't know...
250 + taxes seems to much for unknown .