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====== Info on Activating the Fi Phone, Tracking your Promo Discount, Completing the Promo and Pause/Cancel Fi Service after 120 days ====== added on 12/11/23 by hpham_53
* Activating the Fi S23 phone
When you get the phone:
1. The SIM is already installed in the phone, although the phone box is sealed.
2. Turn on the phone, connect it to WiFi and log into the same Google account that was used to purchase the phone.
3. Download and install the Fi app from Google Play Store.
4. Leave WiFi ON. Run the Fi app. It will insist that you turn Data ON. Go ahead and turn Data ON. It might use a few MB of Data before switching to WiFi. If FI charges you for that Data at all, it will be 1-3 cents added to the 2nd bill.
5. Go through the activation process with the app which will port in your number to Fi.
6. Your phone should be working on Fi then.
* Tracking Your Promo Discount
Log into your Fi account on the web site. There's a countdown in your Billing-->Fi Savings-->In Progress that shows how many more days your Fi service has to remain active. About 24 hrs after you activated the Fi SIM, the In Progress Tracker should show a checklist with entries like: Bought a phone, Got a discount, Activated the SIM, Stay xxx more days on Fi. Make sure the "Activate the SIM" entry is checkmarked and it shows 120 days to go. Then for a few days after that, keep checking the In Progress to make sure the countdown is decreasing each day. The countdown is updated at the same time each day (around the time of day that you activated the Fi SIM).
* How to Verify that your S23 promo was Earned
There's a countdown in your Billing-->Fi Savings-->In Progress that shows how many more days your Fi service has to remain active. The countdown will never say zero day. On the 120th day, it will stay at "1 more day". On the morning of the 121st day, the countdown should say "Stayed (past tense) active on Fi for 120 days in a row". Then later in the day, the In Progress column disappears, and the promo discount gets moved to the Earned column. At that time or later, it's safe to Cancel or Pause your Fi service.
You can use this Date Calculator: https://www.timeanddate
Enter your activation date as the Start Date, select Add 121 days and it'll show the date when it's safe to cancel/pause your Fi service.
* How to Cancel your Fi service
In your Fi account, click on Account-->Your Plan, scroll down until you see "Leave Google Fi". Click on that and follow the on-screen instructions. You'll have the options to Let Go your Fi phone number, or Transfer To Another Provider. (There used to be an option to port it back to Google Voice, but I think it's no longer available). If you choose to let go your Fi number, your Fi service will be cancelled IMMEDIATELY. If you choose to port out, your Fi service will remain active until your Fi number has been ported out to another provider.
* How to Pause your Fi service
In your Fi account, click on Account-->Your Plan, scroll down until you see "Pause Service". Click on that and follow the on-screen instructions. Your Fi service will be paused and Automatically Resumed after 90 days, unless you cancel it before 90 days are up. Once it's Resumed, you can leave it Active, or Cancel it, or Pause again (I don't know how many times you can Pause). If you have a lot of remaining referral Fi credit (which is not refundable), you can choose Pause instead of Cancel to wait and see if there will be new Fi promotions in the future to use up your Fi credit.
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To clarify my previous answer...After activating the physical Fi SIM , you have several options:
1. Keep the Fi SIM in place, and use the eSIM with another provider.
2. Remove the Fi SIM and store it away, then use the physical SIM of another provider.
3. Ask Fi support to transfer service from the physical Fi SIM to the S23's eSIM, then use the physical SIM of another provider.
This is all new to me, so I'll have to do some research. I've never heard of eSIM or Fi SIM before. I currently have a Google Pixel on Tracfone and plan to use their service on the new Samsung. I don't want to screw up!
This is all new to me, so I'll have to do some research. I've never heard of eSIM or Fi SIM before.
Porting a number from Tracfone is not any safer than using a number bought on Ebay. TF does require you to request a Port PIN (called Network Transfer PIN). You can get one by logging into your TF account and submit a request, or text the word "NTP" to 611611. Each Port PIN is good for about 24 hrs. If the number is not ported into the new provider within that time frame, you'll need to request a new one.
eSIM is "embedded SIM" which resides in the phone's memory, you can search on Google for more info on eSIM. Fi SIM is just a physical SIM provided by Google Fi.
Google dont have an option to trade in s23 fe in their list. Is s23 a lot better than s23 FE?
Porting a number from Tracfone is not any safer than using a number bought on Ebay. TF does require you to request a Port PIN (called Network Transfer PIN). You can get one by logging into your TF account and submit a request, or text the word "NTP" to 611611. Each Port PIN is good for about 24 hrs. If the number is not ported into the new provider within that time frame, you'll need to request a new one.
eSIM is "embedded SIM" which resides in the phone's memory, you can search on Google for more info on eSIM. Fi SIM is just a physical SIM provided by Google Fi.
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My wife and child don't care about getting the latest phones. That means I'll have three S20FE's and one S21 to potentially parlay into super discounted S24 phones during pre-order. If the TIV are as crappy as they were with the S23 launch, I'll just dump the old phones on Swappa for the going rate. Otherwise, I'll buy some S24's, and they'll just sit until April/May when the 120 days is up, switch phones, and sell off the S23's to recoup some money. Then we'll look into trading up once the S25 is released.
The only annoyance is that the lavender S23 for my wife is delayed until January, so I'll have to pay yet another full month of T-Mobile service before I can cancel.
* Long answer:
- If you want to use Fi service along with your T-mo service: Keep the physical Fi SIM in place, and use the eSIM with your T-mo service. Use the phone's SIM Manager to designate which SIM is the Primary SIM for outgoing calls (both SIMs can receive incoming calls). You can change the Primary SIM designation anytime using the SIM Manager.
- If you want to use your T-mo service in lieu of the Fi service, then remove the physicall Fi SIM (after activating it) and stash it away, then put your physical T-mo SIM into the phone.
* Long answer:
- If you want to use Fi service along with your T-mo service: Keep the physical Fi SIM in place, and use the eSIM with your T-mo service. Use the phone's SIM Manager to designate which SIM is the Primary SIM for outgoing calls (both SIMs can receive incoming calls). You can change the Primary SIM designation anytime using the SIM Manager.
- If you want to use your T-mo service in lieu of the Fi service, then remove the physicall Fi SIM (after activating it) and stash it away, then put your physical T-mo SIM into the phone.
I just recently ported a Metro phone number to Google Voice and paid $20 to do so. Not really wanting to port that number out of GV into Fi now, since ultimately I want to park it back in GV after the 4 months of Fi service are up, but I need to port a number to qualify for this deal right?
but I need to port a number to qualify for this deal right?
If you currently don't have an active Fi phone number, then you'll need to port-in a phone number for this deal.
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