Mobi's beta has expanded

[rolandh]

Previously @davenc made Community aware of a Mobi beta opportunity:

Mobi Beta Opportunity

Mobi is accepting signups for testing their new service. There’s a link to a form in this Reddit post: Interested in testing a data eSIM for Mobi?

Mobi is now ready to open up its cloud core beta to additional testers. For an annual payment of $50, one gets 5 GB of 4G/5G data then unlimited data throttled to 1.5 Mbps (much more generous than is typical with other providers). Hotspot is included.

This is intended to be data only service though depending upon phone, talk and text may work but are not currently supported. I expect talk and text would work on iPhone but not most Androids. There is no number porting. One would be assigned a random (probably Hawaiian - which is pretty cool) number.

Outside Hawaii, Mobi roams primarily on T-Mobile’s network though there is roaming on other smaller regional carriers as well. Mobi’s beta operates on its own network core, so Mobi’s roaming agreements are its own (no piggybacking off of TMO’s roaming agreements). If one has an eSIM capable phone, this might be an opportunity to add a second data network to one’s phone for a minimal investment.

The aforementioned roaming is domestic but there is also some international roaming. In particular, there is international roaming to Canada at no additional cost. I’ve learned here that @mwgardiner travels somewhat frequently to Canada. Possibly, this would be of interest?

More information is available at Mobi’s subreddit. I’m late posting this, so, if interested, one probably wants to act before year end. Here’s a direct link to the signup form:

Beta Deal Sign-up Form

[mwgardiner]

@rolandh

The aforementioned roaming is domestic but there is also some international roaming. In particular, there is international roaming to Canada at no additional cost. I’ve learned here that @mwgardiner travels somewhat frequently to Canada. Possibly, this would be of interest?

Several months ago, it would have been, but cellular service is a moving target. My primary problem with Canada was solved when Mint threw in Voice/SMS and 3GB/Month for all customers traveling in Canada. Given that the percentage of Mint customers who travel to Canada probably involves a decimal point and a zero or three it is probably not costing them much in relation to their customer base.

I’ll find out at the end of May if Boost has sorted out Canada roaming for me. If they still exist by then.

Thank you for thinking of me.

This is intended to be data only service though depending upon phone, talk and text may work but are not currently supported. I expect talk and text would work on iPhone but not most Androids.

If you could set up a voice/messaging app with an actual phone number attached (I have 3 of these) you could do without normal voice/SMS service. As most of the popular alternative messaging apps want a phone number to send an SMS to on setup, many of them would not be useful.