Citing Extreme Costs, Republic Wireless To Drop Free Domestic Data Roaming For All Subscribers To Just 25MB A Month

One of the more innovative low-cost MVNOs in the smartphone era has undoubtedly been Republic Wireless, a Sprint-powered carrier that offers extremely competitive pricing on the philosophy that, if people are given a good deal on wireless service, they will try to do whatever they can to keep that service afloat. Republic strongly encourages users to map out public Wi-Fi hotspots and use private Wi-Fi whenever they can in place of mobile data in order to keep costs, and thus rates, low for Republic and its subscribers.

Part of Republic's plans to date has been unlimited domestic data roaming, though, and the company claims it simply can't bear the cost of this service anymore. Citing a 3000% markup over offering data directly through Sprint's network, Republic is dropping unlimited domestic data roaming for all subscribers, effective next week (there will be no grandfathering), September 15th.

Republic's ToS already states, essentially, that usage of roaming data on the network isn't a right, it's a privilege, and as such Republic has already reached out to subscribers who it claims are "exploiting" this free roaming coverage in a way not consistent with its subscriber agreement. Those people will, most likely, be forced to leave Republic or drastically change their usage habits.

Everyone else will be limited to a 25MB allotment of roaming data per month, which Republic claims is enough for most of its subscribers who utilize roaming responsibly to start with. Roaming speeds will also drop, which will further reduce the incentive to abuse. Add-on plans for greater amounts of roaming data will be introduced later this year, though expect them to be relatively costly, given Republic's alleged financial burden when it does provide that data.

You can read more about the announcement here.

Republic Wireless

David Ruddock

David's phone is whatever is currently sitting on his desk. He is an avid writer, and enjoys playing devil's advocate in editorials, and reviewing the latest phones and gadgets. He also doesn't usually write such boring sentences.

source: androidpolice