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A couple months ago I posted a Facebook Live video where I talked about a new way we are saving money on our cell phone bill through Republic Wireless. I’ve been using Republic Wireless almost exclusively for two months now. So I thought it would be a great time to share my detailed Republic Wireless review. And while I’ve been using it for only two months, I should note that my son has had a phone through Republic Wireless for 15 months now. So I’ll also share what our experience has been with his phone as well.
First of all, I did not want to switch away from my iPhone. I was happy as a clam with my iPhone, and the thought of switching to Android made me anxious. I’ve been with AT&T for over a decade and they’ve always been good to me. But they haven’t been so great for my wallet… I think you probably know what I’m talking about. And it’s not like I have the most expensive plan either.
Taking advantage of a family plan and splitting a 10GB data plan 5 ways was costing me and my husband $112 a month (just for our portion). And while that is a lot of money, I had gotten used to paying it. I figured, “Well, this is just what a cell phone plan costs, right?” Wrong. A couple of my friends have been swearing by Republic Wireless, so I finally decided to give it a whirl.
To be honest, the first step I had to get past was giving up my iPhone. I LOVE iOS. But my husband (a recent Android convert) finally convinced me. So I did it and it wasn’t as bad as I thought, here is a breakdown of what to expect with Republic Wireless.
Here is my detailed Republic Wireless Review:
Republic Wireless Phones
Republic Wireless has a fantastic selection of phones. Just a year ago, there were only 3 that you could choose from, and now there are like 10 or 11 to choose from. And they even have the latest Samsung, Google, and Motorola phones, as well as some very inexpensive phone options too. Their list is being updated constantly, so check their website for the most up-to-date phones.
My Samsung S7 Edge phone is AMAZING, I actually prefer it over my iPhone now (GASP!) The Android operating system took me about a day to get used to, but once I got used to it, it made a lot more sense to me than IOS. Using a Republic Wireless plan, the phone functions just as it normally would under any other carrier.
You do have to pay outright for the phones (or use their Affirm financing program). But they do offer some more inexpensive options starting at around $179. The Moto G, for example, is only $179 and it’s a fantastic phone and will do just about everything you need it to. You can also bring your own Android phone and buy one of their SIM card packs for $5.00 to get your service switched over.
Call quality
By using WiFi for talk and text in addition to cell, they are able to save you money and provide extra coverage in the places cell can’t always reach. They offer coverage beyond just cell towers anywhere there is WiFi and super affordable plans to go with it.
If I’m in my house or any place where the phone connects to a wifi network, the phone uses wifi to make phone calls. This is actually the biggest way that Republic Wireless saves money and can offer phone plans for so cheap. When the phone is not within a wifi connection, the cell towers take over.
Republic Wireless piggy-backs off two of the nation’s leading 4G LTE carriers. During checkout, depending on the location of your account address, they can intelligently determine which network offers the best coverage experience in your area.
Like all carriers, the network might be great in your town, or the coverage could be spotty. Make sure to check this map to see if your area will be a good match for coverage. I can only speak for my city (which isn’t a big city, mind you), but the coverage has been great.
There are a couple dead spots in town that I’m aware of… for example when I pick my kids up from school, I don’t get any service in the parking lot of the school. But the service in that area with my AT&T phone was very weak too, so maybe it’s something else that is causing the weak cell service.
Their technology actually senses the quality of your phone’s connectivity and uses available cellular data as backup to fill in any gaps in your conversation.
Republic Wireless also has an Adaptive Coverage™ technology, enabled with Bonded Calling™. They have managed to pull together 3G, 4G LTE, cellular voice, and WiFi network signals down in milliseconds so that no matter if you’re on 3G, 4G LTE, or WiFi when you’re talking on your phone, if the signal starts to get bad, your phone automatically patches the gap with one of the other, better, networks.
The result is fewer interruptions, even if your WiFi connection fades as you move around. Oh, and cellular voice roaming is always included.
Data quality
Similar to the call quality, using data around town has been fine. I even used my phone as a hotspot several times and had no issue. Checking email, watching videos, using social media – it all works snappy-fast. Like it’s supposed to.
My son’s phone
My son has an older generation Republic Wireless phone. His still works very well, too. However, if he is on a phone call that starts while the phone is in wifi, and he then leaves the wifi area, the call can sometimes drop while it’s changing from wifi to cell towers.
Other than that, the service on his phone has been great.
Before I made the switch to Republic wireless, I was concerned that I would have the same “wifi-to-cell tower” phone call issue. Fortunately, I haven’t – not even once. In fact, I’ve tested it and tried to get it to drop a call by beginning the phone call in my house and then walking down the block.
No dropped calls. It appears that their newer system with the Adaptive Coverage™ technology has completely fixed this issue.
The Price
This might be the best part. You pay only $20 per line for a 1 GB plan. There are NO contracts and NO overage fees.
Plus – you can change your plans on a month-to-month basis, which comes in really handy for me. If I know I’ll be traveling a lot one month, I know I’ll be using a lot more data. So I can just up my data package for the month using their app (no need to call customer service), and then change it back the next month. Easy peasy.
The Ultimate Verdict
Honest opinion – you owe it to yourself to at least check it out. Mark is switching over this month to Republic and after that switch, we will save $79 per month. I honestly always thought that cell phone services are just one of those things that I would always have to pay an arm and a leg for.
Especially if you are currently not in a contract with your phone provider, give it a try. As long as coverage is good in your area (and it probably is), you’re most likely gonna have a very good experience. And if you don’t have a good experience – there’s no contract and they have a 14-day money back guarantee.
They also have two great deals going on right now:
- From 12/7 – 12/12: Take $100 off a Moto Z Play (discounted from $449 to $349, while supplies last.)
- From 12/13 – while supplies last: Take $50 off an Ascend 5W by Huawei (a soon-to-be-launched new phone with a premium design made even more affordable at Republic, discounted from $179 to $129, while supplies last
PLUS – both of these phones will come with up to six months of FREE service (on their $20 unlimited talk & text + 1GB of cell data plan. Taxes and telecom fees not included. See offer for full details1.)
Disclosure: I teamed up with Republic Wireless to bring this review to you. All opinions are my 100% my own.
COMMENTS
I think this would be a great option for phone service; however, they do not offer plans for iPhones. Most people have an iPhone these days so I feel they need to add at least the iPhone 5s to the list of supported phones. If the iPhones were supported I would strongly consider changing cell phone companies.
It’s not that they don’t want to provide the iPhone, it’s that Apple is very picky on who they let use their system. Since Republic has to use their app to change the way the phone functions, it’s much harder to do on iPhone. Though, there are more active Android devices than iPhone out there and the environment on Android is open, so that’s why Republic went with Android to run their phones. They’ve heard plenty from iPhone users, but Apple has to approve them.
That makes sense. If I still had my Android I would definitely move to them but I just purchased an iPhone 5s a few weeks ago so I will be sticking with what I have for now. Just wish there were more options like this w/o having to get a contract.
Ughhh I am pretty stuck to my iPhone, not sure I could give up on it… but I would LOVE to use Republic to save allll the money! Please do your best to get Apple on your side. Pleaaaaase!
Sophia – I was the same exact way and I now prefer my Android. I was having anxiety over losing my iPhone but it was such a great decision!
Right now we are paying $50 a line for 6GB and they don’t have iPhones so not worth switching for me.
My wife uses RW and has been pretty happy with it. I was using it as well but because it’s more oriented towards people who are frequently near wifi and I travel often, there were a lot of times I had no connection. I also noticed their plans and marketing was really slanting towards ‘pruning off’ people who used their cell data more than wifi. I concluded then it wasn’t for me and switched to TING. They have an ala carte payment and offer CDMA and GSM phones- and you can bring your own and keep your number. You might want to take a look at them too.
ting.com
Yes you can easily port your number from another carrier – https://republicwireless.com/tools/number-transfer/
We love our Republic Wireless phones – my husband and I + 4 kids are all on Republic phones and have been for several years. Nicest thing to happen in the wireless world in a long time.
Gaye – so happy you love them too!
You can often port your number in, and I can totally relate because my cell is also our “home phone”. I would call them and see about porting your number.
I would probably have a hard time giving up my iphone. But what about international plans? I travel for work and need to be able to use my phone internationally. Does that work?
Hi Yes can it be used for international calls?
Also how do you get your info from the iphone to the new android?
Thanks for any help
They can help you get your info from the iPhone into your android. And international calls – no problem. I am going to Jamaica this month and I will let you know how it works there. If you can hook up into the wi-fi you can use the WhatsUp App and text and chat for free.
Thanks for the feedback – great tips.
HI! I bite the bullet and made the switch after reading your article. My question is when I am connected to my WIFI is it using my data? I have the 4 gb plan. I have not left my wifi zone and it shows that some data has been used…any suggestions? Did I miss something?
I’ve used RW for a couple years. It’s a big help at work, where there’s usually no cell signal indoors. My workplace throttles VOIP bandwidth, so voice calls aren’t usable, but getting a text without cell signal is nice.
Unfortunately, RW’s wifi usage can be a huge inconvenience. Today I tried to send a text while at the mall, and it didn’t send because the phone was on the mall’s wifi but waiting to confirm–including requiring my email. I couldn’t even turn off wifi to just get the text out.
RW has done a good job keeping an active voice call from dropping, but a text will sometimes not send at all if the phone is trying to join a weak network. I had to set it to ignore xfinitywifi hotspots, and more and more I just leave wifi off altogether in order to text reliably.
I’m grandfathered into a rebate plan that usually runs about $17 a month, but that plan isn’t available anymore.
I love the idea behind RW! But in practice, these phones are not at all reliable. I have had a Moto G for two years, my wife and two other family members have had RW phones for the same time, and all of us experience problems with them. Mostly, my phone will reboot for no reason at random times, sometimes getting into a reboot cycle that can last several minutes (sometimes hours). Other family members have found that RW phones reboot on them, too, making them entirely unreliable for communication. One family member has had a phone reboot just when needing to call about a medical issue. I can’t use mine for dependable communication or even for taking notes to the store with me – I actually need to write things on paper! The price is great, but the phones are not “real” usable phones. I couldn’t recommend Republic Wireless to anyone. I tried calling customer service, but Republic Wireless dropped the call! These are toy phones, so stay away from them if you need a phone that is always available.
Bob, are you sure you’re actually on Republic? Because you can’t call their customer service.
Ive been using republic wireless for years with an old Moto G phone and had no problems. This Bob guy is crazy, there service is fine.
I am so disgusted with Republic Wireless. My phone was stolen 4 months ago and I have done everything I can to cut it off and stop paying for it but can’t find anyone to help. Would absolutely not use this code again…
NICE POST