Cost, Capabilities, and Convenience Brought Me Back to Google Fi (Premium)

After a year and a half on T-Mobile, I unexpectedly switched back to Google Fi after researching lower-cost mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). And now I'm surprised I didn't do this sooner, as Google Fi has long had a wireless plan that's uniquely well-suited to me spending more time in Mexico now that we have an apartment there.

Before getting to that, allow me to proceed through the article I thought I was going to write, which was about wireless carriers, math, and convenience. This is a shorthand way of saying that choosing a wireless carrier is much like any other decision in that it usually involves a matrix of choices to weigh, instead of just a single factor like cost. That is, it's not enough to just save money, the service needs to meet your needs as well.

And if you're a classic over-thinker like I am, these types of decisions can be problematic. Comparing prices is simple. But determining which features and capabilities are the most important to you, and then weighing those factors against the respective costs of various choices is not. And in my case, that leads to a roadblock where I just give up for some time and then revisit the decision later. Rinse, wash, repeat.

But we're heading back to Mexico City in early February, and so I kept revisiting this topic as I thought through how to best optimize online connectivity, both there and at home, in a way that balanced costs, convenience, and functionality. Yes, we live in a world of endless possibilities now when compared to our earliest international trips decades ago, but the sheer amount of choice we have now also adds to the complexity and indecision in its own way.

Anyway, the timing of this trip is interesting. It coincides with the second anniversary of the moment my wife and I saw and quickly decided to buy our apartment there. During that January 2022 trip, I was in the final months of my second year of using Mint Mobile, and since then, I've switched carriers three times, and have experimented with various Mexico data plans, third-party eSIMs, and other solutions, trying to make sense of the domestic and international divide. Each had its advantages, but each also had its challenges. If there was an obvious answer, I would have chosen it.

But you have to start somewhere. And for most people shopping for wireless carriers, the biggest concern, assuming service availability and reliability are acceptable where they live, is the monthly cost. But in mulling this over, not just recently but over the past few years, and experiencing what it's like when things don't work, I've come to understand that other factors are just as important as the cost. For example, I want the phone plan I use to work seamlessly and automatically, whether I'm home or abroad. I don't want to think or worry about data caps. I want to move my phone plan(s), and easily, from phone to phone, ideally via eSIM. And I know from some bad experiences at Mint Mobile, in particular, th...