Now that we know that Republic Wireless is shutting down at the end of the month, I am curious as to which cellular provider RW customers are going to transition to and why.
Are you going to just go with Boost Infinite or are you going to chose a different carrier?
I’ll start off by saying that I switched to Boost Infinite in December when BI was still in beta. I had a good experience, only minor hiccups along the way. My friend had a bumpy transition, but is doing fine now.
I don’t really need 30GB of data, but I like the idea of being able to use the AT&T, T-Mobile, and Dish Wireless networks. I guess my biggest fear is being in a non-service area. I just went to the Project Genesis website and entered my address. The site said I was eligible, so I guess that means there are Dish towers in my area?
Anyway, look forward to reading other RW customers’ thoughts.
Well, we don’t actually know that. Despite confirmed published reports the intent is to shut down the Republic brand by August 31, 2023, I’ve yet to see evidence any 5.0 plan subscribers have received the promised email notification of that. This is potentially problematical in that material modifications to subscribers’ service would be made with less than 30 days notice. Let’s hope the published reports are missing some detail, which would not be uncommon.
I don’t think it’s a state secret that I’ve been less than pleased with DISH’s management of the Republic brand for some time now. I’ve hung in there for as long as I have in the interest of helping as many fellow members as possible for as long as possible.
Now that DISH has decided to retire the Republic brand (their right), I will vote with my wallet (my right) and move on. I have no interest in Boost Infinite or any other DISH brand.
I get this is the future promised land. As of today, it is a fantasy. There’s three maybe four phones supported for DISH’s fabled “rainbow SIM”. All of those options must be purchased from DISH. There is no BYOD path. The SIMs referenced in DISH’s email to My Choice subscribers will be a T-Mobile SIM (the email states the new SIM will keep them on the same network) 5.0 subscribers who likely won’t need a new SIM to migrate have AT&T network SIMs. Neither of these provide network switching.
Further, there is literally no place in the U.S. where DISH’s standalone 5G network has coverage that is not also covered by either AT&T or T-Mobile. Having subscribers on its currently barely used network would benefit DISH. It doesn’t necessarily benefit subscribers.
Right now I’m thinking about trying US Mobile as their shared data plan has an option that is almost an exact match to our usage. At $33/mo taxes and fees included for two phones that knocks our monthly bill down by $23. They also offer service on T-Mobile’s network so I shouldn’t have to worry about phone compatibility coming from AT&T. I haven’t asked yet but it might also give me the opportunity to move our house phone off of Spectrum Mobile since US Mobile also has the option of using the Verizon Network. At this point I suspect I will start making the move next week when I have more free time.
I would be happy just having both AT&T and T-Mobile coverage because I recall there was some sort of a usage limit on roaming with RW. I found that AT&T has good coverage although not exceedingly strong (usable). I am probably thinking too far ahead into the future since I am not in the market for a new phone right now.
I noticed that the RW website has not announced the shutdown yet. You’re right that a shutdown on August 31, seems a little too fast. In fact, you can still add phone plans to the cart. I imagine Dish wants to take care of the shutdown of RW before issuing rainbow SIMs to its BI customers.
The need for Canada roaming meant that the only reason I held on to Republic Wireless was the Ambassador discount. The extra coverage was handy for Geocaching. I’ve been with Mint for a some years now. The Canada data roaming is vicious but the annual cost for the plan I am on is great. I was hoping to use the new RW for Canada roaming, but that went over like a Neutronium dirigible, they haven’t managed it yet.
If the Ambassador discount goes away, which it sounds like it will, I’ll drop Dish/BI and find out if my Rube Goldberg solution to the Canada issue will work.
I am sure you could save by switching. I get incessant emails from Spectrum trying to get me to sign up for their $29.99, cell plan. Does it stay at that price after one year? I don’t know. The only thing I want from them is their grandfathered internet plan.
I am in the process of switching to MobileX. I tested this via a new phone number that they provided, using eSIM, seems to work fine. It uses Verizon (a good thing in upstate NY) customer support has been quite helpful. A bit of a risk I suppose, but no worse the switching from Verizon to Republic Wireless about a decade ago! A free physical SIM arrives today, see what happens. I will post results in the MobileX thread.
I pay $14/mo for the Spectrum by the gig plan. Since this was replacing our legacy landline I went with a flip phone so we could keep the phone number and not have try to remember decades worth of who has the number. If I can add it to our potential US Mobile account that would go down to $8/mo.
I’m going to try Boost Infinite because only the AT&T network reaches my house (with one bar of service, on a good day, if I stand next to a window).
I looked at Mint Mobile, and was impressed by their honesty. Once I gave them my address, they said the service would be poor and they were not a good fit for me.
The need for AT&T’s network might be all that would cause me to consider Boost Infinite. Unfortunately for DISH, I have no such need as any of the 3 national carriers are fine where I’m at.
Yes, we’re getting some heightened attention from the recent decision by DISH to retire the Republic brand.
Our hope for Real World Users (rwusers.com), however, is more than providing assistance to former Republic members. Regardless of which mobile service provider one ends up with, we hope folks will consider actively participating going forward.
We will start out with Boost Infinite (ATT) for the first six months (at the same pricing we are currently paying with RW). I expect that after that period, one of us will flip to Tello, to test how well T-Mobile works when we travel to visit one of the kids in the midwest sometime in 2024. If that experience goes well, the straggler will flip over as well. If the experience is less than positive, well, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. We certainly don’t need a huge amount of data per month – currently we are on the 1GB data plan (RW’s 5.0 Only What You Need plan), and when we are on the road traveling, we have always needed to add a GB at some point during the month. I would be lost without my GPS when we are on the road.
Our phones are both Motorola G Power 2022, which I think were both purchased from RW in the spring of 2022 (I need to check on that). I’ll start the process to unlock them both in the next couple of days… (BTW, the info on the procedure to unlock RW phones posted on this forum has been super helpful).
(Edit: both our phones were purchased directly from Motorola, and NOT from RW. And since they were carrier agnostic — unlocked? That’s my assumption anyway…).
Has this changed? I still have not received an email of any kind and am a 5.0 plan member. I thought all the batches of emails were supposed to go out over the course of last week. Should I be concerned yet?
By now, I would think all email batches have been sent. You can see the contents of the email sent to members with RW 5.0 plans here:
I expect the necessary code mentioned in the email can be supplied by support. All members with RW 5.0 plans are being asked to do is enter billing information.
According to the email, even if one fails to do so, members with 5.0 plans will still transition to Boost Infinite. Infinite bills 15 days after activation; so even if one chooses not to enter payment information now, it should be possible to do so post migration.
Good deal. Sounds like a plan.