Republic Wireless launched about one month ago and it has easily become the most affordable mobile carrier in the United States. The company said they were offering unlimited talk, text and data for only $19 per month and the internet went wild with optimism. They only had one handset, because of the complex software and hardware, to choose from, but that didn’t seem to bother customers that lined up for a chance to have a great plan, on the Sprint network for less than $20 a month. The catch was that customers had to use a Wi-Fi connection any time one was available in order to keep the cellphone network usage down on the Sprint network.
That is accomplished by the hardware in the one Android powered handset that Republic offers. The smartphone has the ability to switch between a Wi-Fi connection and regular cell phone network in a matter of seconds. This week, Republic listened to its customers and took the original “unlimited” data a step further to make it truly unlimited. The original data plans were not capped, but Republic would steer heavy cell phone network users to a more traditional carrier. If you use more Wi-Fi connections with your phone, you were a better fit for Republic Wireless.
The LG Optimus is the only phone option right now, but the company said that more options are on the way. Republic Wireless is going to be allowing more users into the program soon as they try and deal with the overall popularity of their “unlimited” plan. The LG Optimus is a nice phone with a 3.2-inch touch screen display at 320×480 pixel resolution. There is a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back that includes auto focus and digital zoom and supports video. The LG Optimus will stream YouTube, has instant messaging features, text auto complete and MMS/SMS text messaging.
Navigation is taken care of via the built in GPS, while music can be played back in MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV and MPEG4 formats. Internal memory is only listed at 140MB, but it can easily be upgraded to 32GB with the microSD card slot. The phone supports Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi connections to make calls, which is the most notable feature. The phone is powered by the popular Android operating system, version 2.2.
