Can a family plan finally make ‘s bargain wireless service oject Fi relevant?

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 9 Sep 2016

oject Fi may finally let you bundle multiple friends family members into one group wireless plan.

According to Android lice, which dug into the latest oject Fi app’s A, there are several references that allude to a forthcoming family plan. There’s no set launch date, but the work is clearly underway since it’s hiding in plain site in the latest version of the oject Fi app.

y this matters: oject Fi is ’s strange but intriguing take on wireless service. You need a Nexus phone, which is engineered to bounce between Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, open -Fi networks for service. The service is pretty cheap with data costing only $10 per GB, but the lack of any type of group plans limitation to Nexus phones has made it impractical for most consumers.

Finally, group plans are coming 

The first piece of evidence is the most obvious: Several pieces of code string refer to a “group plan.” There’s a main account that gets control over data allowances. Since Fi lets you choose a bucket of data each month, presumably you’d be able to parcel out a gigabyte here there depending on individual needs.

Other hints in the code reveal that the usual parental control found with the mainstream carriers, such as usage alerts the ability to cut the cord on the flow of data, will be present as well. You can even toss someone off your plan send them on their own.

has slowly been making moves to make Fi more appealing, as this summer it ramped up international coverage to include E added U.S. Cellular as a domestic carrier partner. I used oject Fi this summer when visiting the Netherls, U.K., , Irel found it to be a great experience. Data was fast, with E in most locations, phone calls were surprisingly clear. But the lack of any type of group plan has meant it’s a no-go for me as a regular service, as I’m sure is the case for others.

Is serious, or just experimenting?

has never provided any subscriber numbers, so it’s difficult to tell if this is still all some gr experiment designed to nudge the wireless industry into more liberal data usage or to gain insights into how people use their phones. Family plans could convince a few tech-savvy users like me to make the leap, but the other major roadblock is the limitation to Nexus phones.

would need to partner with other hardware makers to make them Fi-ready. haven’t heard any buzz about that, it’s unlikely the company would be eager to invest the resources for what is likely a network with very low usage. But if would exp beyond Nexus, it’d certainly be a more viable option.

Yet, while may be building out Fi’s capabilities now, it wouldn’t be shocking if one day it pulled a oject Ara shut the whole thing down. One likely place to learn more about Fi’s plans is at ’s rumored hardware event in October, where we should see new phones, Home, a 4K Chromecast. It’d be an ideal place to proclaim new Fi family plans just in time for those glimmering new phones.