Republic Wireless Initial Review

[djjim]

Has anyone confirmed roamning on Verizon? It's not that hard to travel outside of Sprint's native coverage area.

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[jebr]

Has anyone confirmed roamning on Verizon? It's not that hard to travel outside of Sprint's native coverage area.

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It may be hard to travel out of a Sprint coverage area, depending on where you are. Note especially Minneapolis and west...you'd have to travel 40 miles (at least) to hit a no-coverage area, and probably be intentional about finding no coverage, too. He may be in one of those areas.

[djjim]

One trick is to find a mall department store or a building with an underground level. An underground parking deck or a steel building. Heck, some peoples basements. My old Sprint Optimus would always roam in places like that where Vzw's 850mhz would penetrate and Sprint's 1900mhz wouldn't.

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[GSMinCT]

If I had to guess I would say the improved call quality on RW is due to their system.
The Optimus S and Optimus V are the same phones, I have GrooVeIP/GoogleVoice on the OV and RW on the OS. Call quality is better on the RW OS than the other.
On the RW/OS the WiFi calls are passable but not great, still better than GrooVeIP, however when the OS makes and receives cell calls the calls are crystal clear. I would not say it is a quality issue on the hand set. But that VOIP quality over all is not what it should be. There are dozens of VOIP companies out there that have call quality that is equal to if not better than ATT land line service and there are those that suffer horribly, and those that fall in the middle.
On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate the GrooVeIP/GV system a 5 to 5.5 and the RW system a 6 to 7. Both much better than MagikJack or NetTalk but still not cell or land line quality.

Interesting. So you're saying that Sprint CDMA is better than RW? The thing is, you can't really compare to "cell quality", unless you're comparing directly to RW when it's on Sprint, but even that's not constant. It varies by market, depending on spectrum position and technology, i.e. here AT&T is much better than Verizon because Verizon is overloaded and they have switched to extremely low bitrates, so they would be a very poor benchmark standard.

One trick is to find a mall department store or a building with an underground level. An underground parking deck or a steel building. Heck, some peoples basements. My old Sprint Optimus would always roam in places like that where Vzw's 850mhz would penetrate and Sprint's 1900mhz wouldn't.

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It depends on whether they have in-market roaming or not. It might only be outside of Sprint's network area... In-market roaming just gets weird. I've actually had that experience on AT&T, roaming onto Verizon GSM, since AT&T in that market is PCS, and Verizon and USCC are CLR.

[avenue]

Both much better than MagikJack or NetTalk but still not cell or land line quality.

This is a little off topic, but I was considering getting NetTalk and canceling Vonage. Would that be a bad decision?

Thank you all for the reviews so far!

[Endeavor]

The one thing that has always concerned me about RW is their promise of "unlimited usage." They've made clear that only the Wifi usage is unlimited, and that while you can use unlimited CDMA usage as well, they may not renew your month-to-month agreement if you use too much. Their web-site indicates that they will calculate a Cellular Usage Index, which takes into account your CDMA minutes, CDMA texts, and CDMA data. If your CUI goes over 200 for too long, they'll cancel your account.

I've made heroic efforts to find out how they're going to calculate the CUI, so that I can see if my anticipated usage will be too much. I've written repeated e-mails to the President of the company and posted several messages on the forums. Although the President has actually written responses to my e-mails asking how they intend to calculate the Cellular Usage Index, he didn't actually answer my question. He has said that my expected usage wouldn't exceed the guidelines, but I'd really like to know the actual formula to be certain. This is particularly important to me because I have only 30 days to cancel and get a refund of the equipment costs.

If RW hasn't provided a definitive answer soon, I'll probably return the phone. At this point, Ting is looking very promising, as they are very up front on costs, will let you use as much as you want without throwing you out, and have been very responsive to inquiries as well.

Also, RW assigned me a number in an area code that I don't want (and would never selected had they asked me), and has not responded to my e-mails inquiring about changing it. Also, the web-site still shows that my phone is "shipping soon," even though it shipped ten days ago. As a result, I'm not able to do any account management or LNP (not that I would at this point).

[Endeavor]

Cancelling Vonage would not be a bad decision. Going to NetTalk would be.

You'd likely save money and get better service by going with Callcentric or VOIP.ms.

[AndroidFoneFan]

Interesting. So you're saying that Sprint CDMA is better than RW? The thing is, you can't really compare to "cell quality", unless you're comparing directly to RW when it's on Sprint, but even that's not constant. It varies by market, depending on spectrum position and technology, i.e. here AT&T is much better than Verizon because Verizon is overloaded and they have switched to extremely low bitrates, so they would be a very poor benchmark standard.

It is easy to compare the RW VOIP call quality to Sprints Cell quality.
You use the phone in VOIP mode and listen to how clear it is, is there hissing, static, echo's or other issues, this all while my home wifi has full bars. Compared to the same phone while out away from my home wifi. This phone using Sprint Cell service is crystal clear in every way.
RW VOIP is still better than any VOIP I have used in the past but it is not as clear for me here at home as cell service on the same phone.
I am not saying others are or will have this same quality result, I am saying these are the results I am having.

[AndroidFoneFan]

This is a little off topic, but I was considering getting NetTalk and canceling Vonage. Would that be a bad decision?

Thank you all for the reviews so far!

While Vonage costs every month where NetTalk is one annual fee, from my experience if you have good clear service with Vonage with no skips in sound, dropped calls etc, I would stay with them. Net Talk at times is better than Magik Jack and the absence of having to use a PC to make calls is a bonus, but NT is not so much better than MJ that it should or could be considered as a quality replacement for a land line.
I have never used Vonage so I don't know what call quality is like with it. I have heard that the quality is very good. If you are looking to replace Vonage with another VOIP service that has reported quality service I suggest Ooma.

http://www.ooma.com/

I know 3 people and one business that use Ooma as their full time phone service and they all swear by it. The Ooma box will cost a small chunk aprox 250.00 I was told by the business owner Saturday. This Business owner Uses Ooma at home and on their business location (which are not the same location, ie they do not work from home), the business owners wife use to be a paralegal and used it to fax legal documents, so it is fax compatible to some extent. She said text pages work just fine, pictures not so much.

Now in NetTalks and Magik Jacks defense I will say that if you are only going to use them for the occasional long distance call they are well worth the 20.00 a year. But as a full time land line replacement I would say no.

[AndroidFoneFan]

The one thing that has always concerned me about RW is their promise of "unlimited usage." They've made clear that only the Wifi usage is unlimited, and that while you can use unlimited CDMA usage as well, they may not renew your month-to-month agreement if you use too much. Their web-site indicates that they will calculate a Cellular Usage Index, which takes into account your CDMA minutes, CDMA texts, and CDMA data. If your CUI goes over 200 for too long, they'll cancel your account.

I've made heroic efforts to find out how they're going to calculate the CUI, so that I can see if my anticipated usage will be too much. I've written repeated e-mails to the President of the company and posted several messages on the forums. Although the President has actually written responses to my e-mails asking how they intend to calculate the Cellular Usage Index, he didn't actually answer my question. He has said that my expected usage wouldn't exceed the guidelines, but I'd really like to know the actual formula to be certain. This is particularly important to me because I have only 30 days to cancel and get a refund of the equipment costs.

If RW hasn't provided a definitive answer soon, I'll probably return the phone. At this point, Ting is looking very promising, as they are very up front on costs, will let you use as much as you want without throwing you out, and have been very responsive to inquiries as well.

Also, RW assigned me a number in an area code that I don't want (and would never selected had they asked me), and has not responded to my e-mails inquiring about changing it. Also, the web-site still shows that my phone is "shipping soon," even though it shipped ten days ago. As a result, I'm not able to do any account management or LNP (not that I would at this point).

While I have not made heroic efforts to find out the CUI process, I also have made a few inquiries as to how this is calculated, both through email and on their forum, and like you have not had a answer, unlike you I never even received a vialed answer.

I plan on sticking with them for a while to see how much the VOIP service improves if at all, a reasonable portion of my calls are done from home and if they can clear up the VOIP calls some more RW may end up being worth keeping. If not, I may drop them sometime in late 2012.

Cost of the phone will be a loss, but this is a Beta program and in my mind getting in to a Beta program is a gamble and possible losses should be expected.

What is Ting? Found it. A new Sprint MVNO with a different way of billing.

[telmesrin]

I get the impression that RW has not decided on an exact formula for what constitutes excessive use. They probably want to see how much people actually use during this beta period before they finalize their rules.

[avenue]

While Vonage costs every month where NetTalk is one annual fee, from my experience if you have good clear service with Vonage with no skips in sound, dropped calls etc, I would stay with them. Net Talk at times is better than Magik Jack and the absence of having to use a PC to make calls is a bonus, but NT is not so much better than MJ that it should or could be considered as a quality replacement for a land line.
I have never used Vonage so I don't know what call quality is like with it. I have heard that the quality is very good. If you are looking to replace Vonage with another VOIP service that has reported quality service I suggest Ooma.

http://www.ooma.com/

I know 3 people and one business that use Ooma as their full time phone service and they all swear by it. The Ooma box will cost a small chunk aprox 250.00 I was told by the business owner Saturday. This Business owner Uses Ooma at home and on their business location (which are not the same location, ie they do not work from home), the business owners wife use to be a paralegal and used it to fax legal documents, so it is fax compatible to some extent. She said text pages work just fine, pictures not so much.

Now in NetTalks and Magik Jacks defense I will say that if you are only going to use them for the occasional long distance call they are well worth the 20.00 a year. But as a full time land line replacement I would say no.

We haven't had many problems with Vonage, and we're paying $12.50/month plus tax right now. It comes out to around $20/month. It would take over a year to make up the money with Ooma, and we'd still need to pay taxes for that each year which can add up too. Thanks for your response!

The one thing that has always concerned me about RW is their promise of "unlimited usage." They've made clear that only the Wifi usage is unlimited, and that while you can use unlimited CDMA usage as well, they may not renew your month-to-month agreement if you use too much. Their web-site indicates that they will calculate a Cellular Usage Index, which takes into account your CDMA minutes, CDMA texts, and CDMA data. If your CUI goes over 200 for too long, they'll cancel your account.

I've made heroic efforts to find out how they're going to calculate the CUI, so that I can see if my anticipated usage will be too much. I've written repeated e-mails to the President of the company and posted several messages on the forums. Although the President has actually written responses to my e-mails asking how they intend to calculate the Cellular Usage Index, he didn't actually answer my question. He has said that my expected usage wouldn't exceed the guidelines, but I'd really like to know the actual formula to be certain. This is particularly important to me because I have only 30 days to cancel and get a refund of the equipment costs.

If RW hasn't provided a definitive answer soon, I'll probably return the phone. At this point, Ting is looking very promising, as they are very up front on costs, will let you use as much as you want without throwing you out, and have been very responsive to inquiries as well.

Also, RW assigned me a number in an area code that I don't want (and would never selected had they asked me), and has not responded to my e-mails inquiring about changing it. Also, the web-site still shows that my phone is "shipping soon," even though it shipped ten days ago. As a result, I'm not able to do any account management or LNP (not that I would at this point).

I have been thinking about Ting, and it looks great. The customer service looks good, and I saw a screenshot from someone using a phone that looked like the HTC Evo 4G, just with a different name. Also, I read they allow 4G, so it's not just 3G. Customer service looks good too. Here's the thing: Remember, Republic Wireless said you can use 550 minutes, 150 texts, and 300 MB of data without using any WiFi. I type in those numbers on Ting, and it came out to $42/month. That's more than double Republic Wireless' cost of $19/month. So far, I'm still learning towards Republic. I would kind of like Ting and Republic to get together so we wouldn't need to worry about getting "kicked out" for using too much on Sprint's network, and at the same time, keep costs down.

Cancelling Vonage would not be a bad decision. Going to NetTalk would be.

You'd likely save money and get better service by going with Callcentric or VOIP.ms.

Thanks for your response.

[Bob859]

While Vonage costs every month where NetTalk is one annual fee, from my experience if you have good clear service with Vonage with no skips in sound, dropped calls etc, I would stay with them. Net Talk at times is better than Magik Jack and the absence of having to use a PC to make calls is a bonus, but NT is not so much better than MJ that it should or could be considered as a quality replacement for a land line.
I have never used Vonage so I don't know what call quality is like with it. I have heard that the quality is very good. If you are looking to replace Vonage with another VOIP service that has reported quality service I suggest Ooma.

http://www.ooma.com/

I know 3 people and one business that use Ooma as their full time phone service and they all swear by it. The Ooma box will cost a small chunk aprox 250.00 I was told by the business owner Saturday. This Business owner Uses Ooma at home and on their business location (which are not the same location, ie they do not work from home), the business owners wife use to be a paralegal and used it to fax legal documents, so it is fax compatible to some extent. She said text pages work just fine, pictures not so much.

Now in NetTalks and Magik Jacks defense I will say that if you are only going to use them for the occasional long distance call they are well worth the 20.00 a year. But as a full time land line replacement I would say no.

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.

.

[GSMinCT]

It is easy to compare the RW VOIP call quality to Sprints Cell quality.
You use the phone in VOIP mode and listen to how clear it is, is there hissing, static, echo's or other issues, this all while my home wifi has full bars. Compared to the same phone while out away from my home wifi. This phone using Sprint Cell service is crystal clear in every way.
RW VOIP is still better than any VOIP I have used in the past but it is not as clear for me here at home as cell service on the same phone.
I am not saying others are or will have this same quality result, I am saying these are the results I am having.

No kidding. What I'm saying is that making an overall comparison is tough, as it's market dependent based on Sprint's spectrum position, relative market share, tower spacing, etc etc.

[Ian]

Consider also Voipo see www.voipo.com I use them and find them very good quality and reliable.