to estimate the amount of monthly data you expect to use, and your bill will be based on that amount. If you exceed your estimated amount, you’ll be billed at the flat rate of $10 per GB for any overages, and you actually get a credit for unused data if you don’t use your total monthly allowance. For example, if you set your account up with a 5 GB monthly data budget, your basic bill would be $20 for unlimited talk and text, and $50 for data, for a total of $70. But if you only use 3.5 GB of data during the month, you’ll actually get a $15 credit applied to your bill. Use 8 GB and you’ll be billed for the extra 3 GB at the flat $10 per GB rate, with no additional overage charges. Why Project Fi is Perfect for Cruisers Here’s why we think this plan is perfect for cruisers. You can travel to 135 countries (listed on the Google Project Fi website, fi.google.com), and your phone will work just like you were at home. No need to pick up a local SIM card or visit the nearest telecom office to purchase access. Your number stays the same and you can send and receive calls and texts as usual. Your data follows you internationally at the same rate of $10 per GB (although data speeds do vary by country, from LTE to 2G depending on their infrastructure). International texting is free, but voice calls from most countries are subject to a charge of 20 cents a minute, which is significantly less than the international roaming rates of many networks. The phone works as a WiFi hotspot with no additional fee, so if you have a cell signal, you can reach the internet with any of your onboard WiFi capable devices. We’ve been members of Project Fi for two years now, and we love it. Whenever we’ve entered another country, a message pops up on our phones that says “Welcome to (country name), your Project Fi phone works here!” We never have to worry about whether a family member can contact us and as long as there’s cell coverage, we always have a way to reach the internet. We’ve watched other cruisers struggle with how to stay in touch with people back home while we’ve been able to send and receive calls and texts, call local marinas and restaurants at will, and run apps like Maps or Google Earth to find our way around. Once while driving through Nassau, friends of ours whose phones wouldn’t work in the Bahamas fumbled with a paper map attempting to find a particular location while we used Google Maps to get turn-by-turn instructions, just like we were back in the U.S.
And the Downside is? So what’s the catch? Well, you’re probably going to need a new phone. To be compatible with Project Fi, your device has to contain the required multi-spectrum CDMA and GSM radios that support the network-skipping that’s a key feature of Project Fi. Currently, the Google Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL and Moto X4 are the only phones available with the necessary hardware to run on the Project Fi network. They can be purchased through the Google Play Store or the Project Fi website, with the latter also offering the ability to spread out the purchase cost of the phone by making monthly payments, added to your cellular service bill. There are also a few of the previous generation of Project Fi compatible phones, the Google Nexus 5X, 6 and 6p, still available online from various retailers. If you don’t currently have one of these models, then you’re going to have to purchase one to join Project Fi. As a Google service, Project Fi is Android only. There are no iOS (Apple) devices that run on the network. The good news is that all the phones are unlocked, multi-band devices, which means that you can easily transfer them to another carrier by swapping SIM cards if you ever decide to leave Project Fi (although I can’t imagine why you would once you’ve tried it). The entire process to join Project Fi is handled through the website, fi.google.com. After ordering, your phone and SIM card will show up in the mail in a couple of days, and transferring an existing number is quick and painless. Just answer a few questions online, insert the Project Fi SIM card in your new phone, turn it on and follow a few prompts to transfer your existing number (or establish a new one if you desire) and activate your service. If you just can’t give up your iPhone, then Project Fi isn’t for you. If you currently have an unlimited data plan from another carrier and use it as your primary internet connection, or you stream a lot of video or audio content, you’ll probably find that $10 per GB will quickly add up, resulting in Project Fi costing more than your current plan. But if, like us, you spend a great deal of time outside the U.S., you don’t want to have to carry an additional phone or obtain local SIM cards and a new phone number for each country you visit, and you’re looking for a simple, reliable, and inexpensive way to keep in touch with home, then we recommend that you investigate Google’s cellular offering, Project Fi. Because in our opinion, it’s just about the perfect cellular plan for cruisers.
Get Your Photo on the Cover of SOUTHWINDS We are always looking for good, unusual, unique photos, both racing and non-racing for the cover of SOUTHWINDS. The main requirement is that it have a sailboat in it—or part of one. If you have a great photo you took from a sailboat, part of the boat should be in the photo to show that it was taken from a sailboat. It can be anchored, sailing, motoring, at dock—or whatever else is possible. Composi-tion is what matters; it just must be a nice photo to look at. We have had some great covers in past years with a large variety of subjects. View all of them on one page to see the variety and for ideas (about 150-plus covers): www.issuu.com/southwinds. The photo must also be taken in the area SOUTHWINDS covers: The Southeast coastal states (from North Carolina to Texas), the Bahamas or the Caribbean. A cover photo needs lots of pixels, it must be focused, and it must be a vertical photo (portrait format), although we can crop a vertical photo out of a horizontal one (landscape forNews & Views for Southern Sailors
mat)—if the pixels are there. For pixels, we need at least 1700 pixels wide and 2200 pixels tall, so set your camera to the highest level of quality/resolution (most modern smartphones have enough pixels). We pay $65 for a cover photo. Email (or for questions) to editor@swindsmag.com. Please do not mail in printed copies of photos taken with digital cameras. We want the digital photo.
SOUTHW INDS News & Views for Sou thern Sa ilors
SOUTHWINDS
Benetea u 42s7 Boat Re view Trawler Stabilize rs Sailors for the Sea
For Sai lors — Free…It’sMay 2013 Priceless
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