Republic Wireless… Unlimited Text, Talk and Web for $19!

Bandwidth.com, is launching a new phone carrier service next week. With such a nifty price what comes in mind is that they will raise their price by the end of the month. But with their new technology “Hybrid Calling” their service will rely on wireless networks (WiFi) and fall back onto a phone carrier service, most likely sprint when out of range.

Sounds familiar? Well yes, we all know that some carriers like T-mobile have UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access), but  unlike T-Mobile, where you wont be switched automatically to WiFI when you initiate the call on their cell network, deducting unnecessary minutes. Rebulic wireless will automatically switch to WiFi instead of using the cell service. This might not be a great advantage since the plan is unlimited, but they also promise that there is no bandwidth cap.

The only catch is that you will need to purchase a dedicated device and since there is no contract it seems you will have to pay the device in full, but hey, $19 will be worth it especially to those who travel abroad and need to a cheap way to call the states. So fingers crossed on the pricing and quality of the device.

Here are the basics, from what we’ve heard from beta testers and the company:

• The service will use what it’s calling “Hybrid Calling” — your phone will rely primarily on Wifi, whenever it’s available. It will fall back on cell networks, such as Sprint, when you aren’t connected to Wifi.
• Users will not have to manually switch between Wifi and cellular — the phone will figure it out automatically
• The service will require users to get a new phone. It’s unclear that whether there will be multiple models available initially, but the phone runs on Android.
• The first cellular network that’s available as the fallback will be Sprint. The company might be planning, or already in the process, of signing other carriers onboard
• The phone will have one phone number (no swapping between numbers for VoIP/cellular)
• You’ll be able to send both calls and texts via Wifi
• We’re hearing that pricing details are still being finalized, but they’re described as being much cheaper — perhaps around half as much — than anything else available for an Android device (i.e. a smartphone) through the traditional carriers, basically what we are hearing that it’s $19/mo/
• No contracts so it seems that there a no strings attached.

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