From Republic by Dish to US Mobile, an in-progress review

Reviews
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With the announcement that Dish is terminating the Republic Wireless brand and moving all existing RW customers to Boost Infinite, I am looking for a solution for my mother-in-law.

She wouldn’t want me stating her age here, but she’s a senior citizen who likes the idea of having a cell phone in case of an emergency. She’s a power-texter, keeping up with family and friends by text message, but relies mostly on her home phone for calling and uses only a teensy bit of cellular data, mostly for MMS. She has a few games she likes to play on the phone, but they don’t require data.

So my needs here are a low-cost plan. “Unlimited” is not a selling point for me, for this situation. Coverage, however is a big deal.

I had her on the Republic Wireless My Choice plan on the T-Mobile network and having enough signal to send and receive text messages was, at times, iffy. She’s currently on the Republic by Dish 5.0 plan on AT&T’s network, and has the same trouble. She lives in a bit of a coverage black hole. Her daughter is a Verizon subscriber, so I’m optimistic that Verizon coverage will be okay for her.

Plans

My first visit to the US Mobile website left me thinking this was not going to work out. The featured plans are all Unlimited. But… scroll down, Southpaw, there’s more!

“Pay for what you need” plans start at… am I reading this right? :eyeglasses: $10 a month with 1GB of data? Mid-cycle top-ups for $2 per GB? I’ve never had to add data on her line, but if Verizon coverage is better, that could become a possibility. This is looking good.

Compatibility

I’ve had some of trouble with services that rely on Verizon in the past, because I have phones that Verizon does not consider compatible with their network. Knowing that’s problematic, I had checked the IMEI of the phone I plan to set up for my mother-in-law on Verizon’s IMEI checker before I looked at US Mobile, and it passed. :tada: I thought I’d double-check by seeing if US Mobile considers it compatible, as well.
I couldn’t find a stand-alone IMEI checker on the US Mobile website, so I started a chat. Just a couple of clicks into a chat-bot scripted chat and my IMEI was entered and I was handed over to receive the verdict from a live agent. I was assured the phone is compatible as long as it is unlocked. I like that they think to mention that caveat. :+1:

Warp 5G

Everything I’ve seen on the US Mobile website mentions the Warp 5G network. Okay, I get it, it’s a catchy name that screams “speed” but the phone I want to use isn’t a 5G phone. So I asked my helpful chat representative whether this Warp 5G network is strictly 5G, and I’m assured it is both 4G and 5G. :+1:

Try before you buy?

I need to know for a fact that my mother-in-law will have coverage, so I’m hesitant to port her number when I activate the phone. (There is, however, a fabulous offer of a 100-day free trial on an unlimited plan for anyone willing to port their number!) So I ask the chat representative whether it’s possible to port a number later, or if that option is available only upon activation. I’m assured that porting later is possible. :+1:

All the answers to my questions hit the mark, so I’m going to give this a try.

Getting started

Ok, I took the wrong path and hit a brief dead-end here.

From the US Mobile plans page, I clicked “get started” beside the “Pay for what you need” plan details. That lead me to Account creation.

Account creation is pretty easy - name, email address, password, agree to some terms.
Then I was prompted with a “where did you hear from us” modal with lots of choices and an “other” option that allowed me to plug rwusers.com! :grin:

But then I was deposited in my new account, where the three options are all activation options. “Activate your shareable data plan”, “Start your 100 free trial”, and “Activate an unlimited line.” I guess with the growing use of eSIM, this makes sense, but I’m going to need a SIM card.

Shopping for SIM cards

On the “Shop” page of the website, I’m offered three SIM card options. A “Starter kit” with both Warp 5G and GSM SIM card, and an option for just a single of either SIM card. Each option is $3.99. I opt for the “Starter kit” just in case the Warp 5G coverage doesn’t work out. I add the kit to my virtual shopping bag, log into my newly-created account, apply the FREEKIT coupon code I saw on their website when reading about the 100-day deal and place my order for my free SIM cards. Standard 4-6 day shipping is free. That may work out, since I’ll be going to see my mother-in-law next weekend, but since I’d like a little time to activate the phone and try it out, I’ll spring for $2 “fast” shipping. I enter my payment info (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, or Discover) and off we go. :rocket:

To be continued when the SIM cards arrive…

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Thanks for posting. It will help me as I start to move our phones from RW.

I am planning on transferring my phone to US Mobile next week. Their 12G shared data plan is pretty much perfect for us and as you note the additional per GB price is very good too. I ran into the same problem of no IMEI checker so plugged my phone into Verizon’s. They said it was not supported so I plan on using the GSM SIM. I know @rolandh said he was able to get an non-Verizon version of the A32 5G to work on their network but I rather go where I know I will get technical support if needed. In any event I expect I will have a decent signal with T-Mobile if they are still using the same towers Sprint did.

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That’s great, that means we’ll have both types of SIM cards represented here if people have questions!

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Southpaw and old_engineer

Thanks for the play-by-play. I’m looking at US Mobile also.

The website was a little confusing with their plans, and yes, I had to scroll down to get out of the unlimited plans, and I was really surprised at the great prices!
I’m not a heavy data user (1 GB with RW was always enough), but I like the option of more if needed.
I’m deciding between WARP and GSM, but will probably do what old_engineer is doing – I know T-Mobile worked well before for me, and I’m not a high-speed user.

This is a very helpful thread!

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After seeing the Boost Infinite notification posted by @rolandh I figured I aught to move fast on my migration to a new provider while I still have RWs support.

I ordered two starter kits today and used the FREEKIT code provided by @southpaw. The freebee was applied to one kit so my total including 2 day shipping was $5.62. I should see my SIMs on Wednesday.

I find the US Mobile website to not be well laid out. There tends to be a lot of marketing clutter on what I consider working pages where things need to be orderly. I also think their new/potential customer order process could be cleaned up to better take folks through the process. That being said after creating my account I found some things like finishing off my account settings straight forward. Once past trying to order the SIMs it appears getting the plan I want won’t be prone to error as the paths for unlimited or shared data are easy to find on the Add Line page.

I’ll update more after I get further along in the process.

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Agree about the cluttered layout of their website.
It took a bit to find the plans I wanted (NOT unlimited) – I almost thought they didn’t have any!

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I received my SIMs today. Not bad getting them overnight for 2-day service.

I started the port of my first number. I am porting my phone to US Mobile’s GSM (T-Mobile network) offering.

I went to the Add Line option from the left hand side of the screen and followed the various options. Two things I noticed is the panels are laid out to favor their Warp 5G and Unlimited offerings. You have to manually select GSM and Shared plan buttons at the very top of the screen. With all of the other links down in the body it took me a bit to find those buttons after a false start or two. Some of my problem is getting use to a new website but I still think things are too cluttered with marketing oriented content.

Once I found the GSM button filling out the porting information for my number was straight forward. After completing that and locating the Shared Data plan button I was able to find all of the different plans. Once I selected my plan it took me to a straight forward checkout process.

I entered all of my checkout information and submitted it then something broke? What I have no idea as it would only tell me to contact customer service which I did. Customer service could not tell me what the error was either. They told me the port was successfully submitted and nothing appeared to be wrong.
I received the billing notice and Welcome email which all indicated everything was proceeding just fine. I can only think something timed out returning to the webpage and it didn’t receive a completion status it was expecting.

I needed to refresh the main dashboard page to see the line number increment in the All Lines option. After selecting it I saw my phone number show up as in progress. When I selected my number, after what seemed an eternity, all of the porting information was filled in on the resulting page. That will be helpful should something go wrong.

Now it is a matter of waiting. The customer service rep said I should receive an email notification when the port is complete in a day or two. Then it is on to the next step of installing the SIM.

On choosing a Shared Data plan you need to know your usage and requirements. For us with two lines the US Mobile plans are good match but for a single line maybe not. As an example the 12GB option is $25/mo for a single line. Adding additional lines increases the rate by $8 per line. If I only had one line and did not need hotspot support the Boost Infinite plan would be the better deal.

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Thanks for going first @old_engineer! I’ve got about a bazillion updates to apply to the phone I’ll be activating, but I’m hoping to get it set up and activated tonight!

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Like @old_engineer, I received my SIM cards today. FedEx 2-day shipping for $2 is certainly appreciated!

The packaging was simple. I’m a little jealous of how they’ve managed to boil down “how to I insert my SIM card” into some very general language. “The SIM card slot is either on the side of your phone or somewhere near the battery.” We probably spent far too much time at the old Republic Wireless trying to make sure every single make and model of phone had instructions… and still people managed to rip off phone backs that weren’t meant to be removed, install SIM cards upside down, jam the SIM card trays, and poke the ejector tool into noise-cancelling mic holes. (Yeah, that last one was me.)

I really love the look of these SIM cards, by the way. Very patriotic!

Activation is done online in your account, rather than on the phone. I mean, I guess you could log into your account on your phone, but I didn’t try that. I still like to sit down in front of a computer for things like this. Since I was trying to activate Warp 5G, I didn’t even notice the bias in that direction that @old_engineer mentions. I did have to concentrate to find the option to activate on the plan I wanted, as the “100 day trial” offer occupied most of the activation page’s real estate. Otherwise, the flow was pretty simple, and it only took a couple of minutes to provide all the info. I received an email almost instantly welcoming me to US Mobile and letting me know that I’d need to restart my phone.

I restarted and learned that I have only the tiniest hint of cell service at my house, at best. It quickly changed to no service. I also don’t see any way to enable WiFi calling. Have you given that a try, @old_engineer?

We’ll have to see how it does around town and, most importantly, at my mother-in-law’s house.

I also appear to have inherited “Rhonda’s” phone number, as I immediately got multiple text messages from Facebook. Rhonda, wherever you are, if you’re trying to get into your Facebook account, I’m here for you.

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I’ve been using US Mobile since the beginning of April 2022, when I left RW. I have a US factory unlocked Samsung Galaxy A32 5g from Amazon. I’m using the Warp 5G SIM (Verizon). I thought I was in a big Verizon area, but my neighborhood has bad signal…usually 1 bar, VERY slow LTE data. If I drive a mile, I have full bars & 5G. Just my luck. :joy:

I don’t remember HOW I set up wifi calling, but it works great (even SMS & MMS), so that makes up for my horrible signal (until the cable internet goes out…rare, but it happens).

I’m on their cheap plan with unlimited calls/texts/1GB, which until now was $11.48/mo. Gonna change it to the new version of that plan in a couple days, which will make it $10/mo., tax included. Who’da thunk my bill would actually go DOWN! Nice.

I haven’t bothered trying the white SIM. Maaaaybe my signal would be better at my house, but I’m guessing Verizon has wider coverage here in CT, so I’ve just stuck with the black SIM. I hardly leave the house, anyways, so I don’t need much data, and $10/mo. has been really nice!

US Mobile also has an active Reddit community, and the mods/staff are pretty quick to help out, and very friendly. I read every post there, just like I did at the old RW community, so I didn’t have bad forum withdrawal!

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Is anyone on US Mobile’s GSM (T Mobile) plan?

I’m not sure I want Verizon, and T Mobile on the old RW worked great for me.

They really are pushing the WARP plan. I’m not a power user, so the GSM might be more my speed!

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also, I have a Moto gPower (2022), which doesn’t have 5G as far as I know. It’s been fine for my needs!

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I haven’t tried WiFi calling yet. We aren’t big WiFi phone users anymore leaving it for backup.

I am using GSM. T-Mobile’s signal where I’m at is just as strong as AT&T and Verizon. I have a 5G phones and I have not seen any degradation to 4G when I have been using it.

Latest status:
My 1st line finished porting at 5 AM this morning. The porting process was somewhat weird. I received an email from USM around 5 PM last evening saying my port was suspended as Republic had not responded. I didn’t see it until late last night by which time it was too late to call RW to see where things stood on their end. I was expecting that the port could take up to a couple of days so seeing it had completed when I logged in this morning was ok by me.

I added my wife’s line this morning which was much easier having more familiarity with USM’s dashboard. I received the same error on checkout that I saw yesterday. However today when I was on the phone with customer service they said nothing completed this time. I went back to the add line which placed me at the checkout page and when I retried it was successful. I suspect they have a timing problem between the web server and back end systems.

As with my phone I received an email about 1.5 hours after the port request saying the request had been suspended due to lack of response from RW and to contact them about the port status. This was around 11:30 AM today. I’ve been busy and checked my wife’s phone just before starting this post. It can no longer connect to RW for outgoing calls which I thought indicates that RW has released the number. I intend to call them after I get cleaned up and had a chance to relax. USM still says in progress but that might be because their side is suspended (whatever that means). Either way I suspect it will complete before I check tomorrow just as my phone did (I like the certainty of batch processing). I like that USM seems to try to stay on top of port requests but I get the feeling they are a bit over zealous on how fast they expect a response to their port requests.

I’ve had a chance to use support via chat and phone. Both engagements were satisfactory and went smoothly as far as I’m concerned. I can’t say the same for RW today when I called to get the PIN for my wife’s port out. Since I am almost off of RW I see no reason to go into what happened. If my contact with USM is typical then I feel pretty good about the move. It reminds me of the old RW before being assimilated by DISH.

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:rofl: Guess what I did when installing my USM SIM card this morning?

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Why on earth did Samsung think putting that mic right next to the SIM tray was a good idea?!

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Why did they decide to use round holes of similar diameters? Everyone knows the SIM card release needs to be a square of sufficient size with a big orange arrow saying “It goes in here dummy”.

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You’ve posted in other topics, you have a secondary line on Tello. In terms of network coverage, US Mobile’s GSM 5G coverage is the same as Tello’s. There’s nothing inherently wrong with having two phones using the same network coverage, however, if there’s a hiccup with T-Mobile’s coverage in your area, it would affect both phones.

You might, at least, consider US Mobile’s Warp 5G (Verizon network) coverage as it would give you network redundancy (one phone on Verizon’s network and the other on T-Mobile’s network).

There is no Warp plan per se. US Mobile labels its Verizon network coverage as “Warp 5G” and its T-Mobile network coverage as “GSM 5G”. These are just labels - a way for US Mobile to distinguish between network coverage because MVNO agreements, generally, forbid the MVNO to identify the upstream networks used.

It’s true, US Mobile’s 100-day free trial is currently available only for “Warp 5G” (Verizon network). Otherwise, US mobile’s plans are the same for either “Warp 5G” or “GSM 5G”.

One is not required to avail themselves of the free trial. One may activate any of US mobile’s other plans on “Warp 5G” (Verizon network). Again the difference between “Warp 5G” and “GSM 5G” is about network coverage not plans.

As for why the free trial is currently available only on “Warp 5G”, it’s probably because Verizon charges US Mobile less for wholesale cell data than T-Mobile does.

If you decide to try US Mobile’s “Warp 5G” (Verizon network) coverage and later determine you would prefer “GSM 5G” (T-Mobile network) coverage, US Mobile support is able to move you from “Warp 5G” to “GSM 5G” and vice versa.

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Not an expert here but I think one can use US Mobils’s app to activate. Anyway, like you, I prefer activating from a computer (something most providers unlike the old Republic Wireless do allow).

Which phone?

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I’m done. All that is left is to cancel my RW phones and account which I will do later tonight or tomorrow.

RW would not give me the status of the port on their end. When I asked to talk with the porting team I obviously requested an audience on Mt. Olympus. Anyway since my wife’s phone was no longer to make outgoing calls other than 911 I assumed the number had been released on RW’s end. I replied to the USM porting team who within 5 minutes completed the port.

After installing the new SIM and powering up her phone I received a sign in to network notification when WiFi was turned off. Otherwise incoming text and calls were working but data was not. I did not try to make and outgoing call. Her phone also disappeared from the data pool and my line status page. I called customer support where the rep found some settings that needed to be fix. The representative said it was going to take a bit to get everything in-order and asked to call me back in 10 minutes. Sure enough he called me back in 10 minutes and everything was working.

I really have no complaints with US Mobile’s support. They have been quick to respond and to resolve whatever issue I have brought forward.

I’m going to give things a week or two to settle in but I am thinking of of moving my “home” phone from Verizon based Spectrum to US Mobile. At $10/mo we are back at my RW 1.0 price which is fine for the flip phone on this account.

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It is a Moto G Power 2020