Republic Wireless gets serious about its phone selection

Republic Wireless’ promise of extra-affordable cellular service has usually come with a big catch: the phone selection. Outside of the occasional gem, you’ve had to settle for browsing a tiny collection of so-so budget devices. That won’t be a problem after this summer, though. Republic has announced that it’s adding seven more phones to its roster this July, and most of them are reasonably up to date, high-end models you’d likely be happy to have. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are in the mix, as is Google’s current Nexus line and the Moto X Pure Edition — you can even get last year’s Galaxy S6 if you’re striking a balance between cost and cutting-edge. The prices are generally on par with what you find elsewhere, such as $699 for the Galaxy S7.

The provider wants to spice up its plans, too. In step with its move to a more standard GSM phone network, it’s introducing a $20 per month plan that bundles unlimited talk and texting with 1GB of data at LTE speeds ($5 less than before). It’s still not ideal for everyone (you can’t bring your own phone, for example), but the combination of good phones with better rates might just reel you in if you’re more concerned with cost than absolute flexibility.

Source: Republic Wireless