Republic Wireless Plus Moto G Equals The Mobile Service Sweet Spot

Republic Wireless announced that it now offers Motorola’s Moto G smartphone with its mobile service packages, and with this move, Republic Wireless has found an elusive sweet spot in the industry--a mobile plan that offers great functionality for the price with a smartphone that you can be glad to have but costs very little.

When Republic Wireless first debuted, the inexpensive MVNO’s weak spot was its smartphone--a middling Motorola device that cost $249. Since then, Republic Wireless added the Moto X to its stable, which an improvement to be sure in terms of the quality of the phone but pushed the out-of-pocket cost for the handset up to $299.

The Moto G costs just $149. It’s no Moto X, but it offers plenty of solid features and specs, a midrange phone that you wouldn’t be ashamed to be seen using in public.

Moto G

Here’s some math on what you’d pay for two years with the Moto G and Republic Wireless: Republic Wireless offers four service tiers, but the $25-per-month option offers arguably the best value with unlimited talk, text, and 3G data. ($40 per month gets you the same, but with 4G data.)

Over the course of 24 months, that’s $600. With the cost of the Moto G, that brings your total up to $749.

Contrast that with an AT&T Mobile Share plan that offers unlimited talk and text but just 2GB of data per month; it’s $40 per month for the plan plus $40 per month for one smartphone. That’s $80 per month plus $200 for a high end phone like the Samsung Galaxy S5 (that’s even with the contract discount), which comes out to $2,120 over two years.

That huge price gap is just as striking as it’s always been for Republic Wireless, but the Moto G closes the gap just a bit more with its price and features. That’s a sweet spot.