Fi using AT&T and Verizon towers?

[sidsub]

Just returned from a long weekend in west Texas around the Alpine/Marfa/Fort Davis area. I was surprised that my SignalCheck app showed I was connected with Verizon or AT&T towers while I was in that area (in or near the towns... there's no coverage on the highways between towns) even while the phone display just showed that I was on the "Fi Network". Does anyone know if Google itself has made deals with these carriers? Or do Sprint and T-Mobile have deals with them and Fi piggy-backs off these deals?

Either way, this was very encouraging -- I generally had better and more reliable coverage with Fi than my friends who had Sprint phones.

 

[fatboy97]

I don't have my Fi SIM card yet, but it's a fairly widely known fact that T-Mobile has purchased tower time from AT&T. I would imagine that Verizon is selling parts of it tower coverage to T-Mobile and Sprint as well. It's all just revenue to AT&T and Verizon, and better coverage in areas for T-Mobile and Sprint.

 

[theycallmegadget]

Just returned from a long weekend in west Texas around the Alpine/Marfa/Fort Davis area. I was surprised that my SignalCheck app showed I was connected with Verizon or AT&T towers while I was in that area (in or near the towns... there's no coverage on the highways between towns) even while the phone display just showed that I was on the "Fi Network". Does anyone know if Google itself has made deals with these carriers? Or do Sprint and T-Mobile have deals with them and Fi piggy-backs off these deals?

Either way, this was very encouraging -- I generally had better and more reliable coverage with Fi than my friends who had Sprint phones.

From what I understand, Fi will utilize service on each carrier at the postpaid level, ie. when you are using Fi on Sprint, you'll get their same roaming partners, same with T-Mobile, when your Fi service utilizes their network, you'll roam as needed like a postpaid subscriber. In my experience, the more rural you go, the more Fi favors Sprint.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[kolyan2k]

Fi, just like all others roams on ATT and Verizon ONLY IF Sprint or Tmobile have roaming contracts (which they dont where I live, so I get no service instead) Fi in fact has less coverage then Tmobile itself since at this point they dont support 700Mhz spectrum. Bastards are lying about equal Tmobile coverage and about Wifi-calling in all 120+ countries (only about 90 countries actually support it officially).