Hum Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Prepaid wireless carrier Republic Wireless has been offering its $19 per month, unlimited everything, prepaid smartphone plan since about this time last year. At the time, though, there were a few catches; you had to buy a very low-end smartphone from them, you had to use its Hybrid Calling technology for most of your calls, and you could only get in if you were lucky enough to be accepted to an exclusive "beta wave." Since then, Republic Wireless has upgraded to the slightly more modern Motorola Defy XT as its flagship smartphone model, and has changed to allow unlimited calling, texting, and data over Sprint's nationwide network, for the same $19/month price. Now the North Carolina-based startup is dropping its last restriction; the doors are open for anyone to preorder up to four Defy XT phones, "and they'll begin shipping in mid-December." The Motorola Defy XT is designed to be dustproof and waterproof, with rubber bumpers covering each port and an unlocking switch keeping the back cover sealed. Its specs are decidedly last year's; powered by a 1 GHz, single-core processor, it often shows Kindle Fire-style lag when swiping between home screens on its 3.7 inch display. It runs 2010's Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with no OS upgrades announced, and it doesn't have much room to store games and apps, although it comes with a 2 GB microSD card. Republic Wireless' low monthly fee is partly made possible by its Hybrid Calling technology, which is basically an app that loads on startup and lets you make calls and send texts over Wi-Fi. Call quality is generally good, although it depends on how good your Wi-Fi connection is and how many people are streaming video over it while you're trying to make your call. You can switch off Hybrid Calling by disabling Wi-Fi, if you want to make calls over Sprint's network instead; this happens automatically if your Wi-Fi signal drops, which has the effect of hanging up your call. :huh: more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fusi0n Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 This is great news. I hope this company does well. remixedcat 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 I might consider this service in the future. I'd like a better model phone tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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