An Android-Powered, VoIP/Cellular Hybrid Carrier That'll Cut Your Phone Bill In Half

Over the weekend, I wrote a post pleading with Google to please, in short, bring VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) capabilities to Google Voice - namely, with an app for Android. The app would have some major benefits: it would let you make and receive calls over your home and work Wifi networks whenever they’re available. And whenever you aren’t around Wifi, you could fall back to your carrier minutes. Unfortunately, during Google was as a matter of fact working on building a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)-powered app for Android long ago, it shelved it, likely because it was concerned about infuriating the carriers.

But shortly afterwards that post ran, I started hearing some whispers. Turns out I’m not the only one with the idea - there’s another big fish that’s about to make a splash. Get ready for Republic Wireless, a new mobile phone service from Bandwidth.com that will be launching on November 8, and could actually be the phone carrier you’ve always wanted.

First, a little background. If you’ve placed a call on Twilio, Skype, Google Voice, or one of myriad other services that use VoIP, there’s a very good chance that Bandwidth.com was involved. The company’s extensive VoIP infrastructure handles much of the heavy lifting for these services, and it as well offers some of its own products, like Phonebooth, a premium VoIP service for businesses.

Which brings us back to Republic Wireless, which is the latest of Bandwidth’s own products. The service will in essence be a mobile virtual network operator - that is it’s an alternative to the likes of Verizon and AT&T. And unlike devices on those carriers, it will switch between VoIP over Wifi and a normal cellular connection, depending on where you are.

The product’s homepage

The product’s homepage was recently updated with a cheeky note promising a “new kind of wireless network” on November 8th. A link at the bottom confirms that it is, in point of fact, made by Bandwidth.com. The rest of the site is short on details, however we have many more thanks, partly, to a slide deck the company has been showing to its internal beta testers.

I’ll keep poking around for more details. In the mean time, it’s worth checking out the Republic Wireless site - if you scroll to the right, you’ll find a long photo to likely contains hints as to what to expect come November 8. I’m wondering if the phone shown below is what the first device on the network will look like.