I actually went the other direction and left Project Fi for T-Mobile and use my phone as my only Internet connection at home. It wasn't really on purpose but it has been nearly a year and a half now and I haven't looked back. In March or April of 2017 I threw a tantrum over how much I was paying Charter for my Internet and cable and cancelled them both thinking I would switch to U-Verse since I had received offers for U-Verse not too terribly long before. Of course when I got around to trying to actually get U-Verse they had decided that you can't have that anymore and have to get DirecTV and the only Internet option I have at my address is DSL. My phone is faster than DSL.Hoot45 wrote:I downshifted my smartphone usage about a year ago and I genuinely feel healthier for it. The real trick wasn't to ditch the smartphone but rather to change my data plan in a way that modifies behavior. I went from an iPhone on a data thirsty Sprint plan to a Moto X4 on a hassle-free pay as you go plan on Google Fi. I still have all the upside but am forced to be more intentional about how I use my phone.
Instead of burying my face in my phone while waiting in line for a burrito at Chipotle, I force myself to interact with the people around me. Of course I could browse the internet to pass the time, but that'll cost me money. When you're forced to pay for what you use you realize how meaningless a lot of your data usage really is. And when you pick your head up, you realize how interesting the real world is around you.
(By the way, I use no more than 0.5GB per month now. And this is without depriving myself. I work from home, rely hopelessly on e-mail and Slack, and frequently travel for work. It's amazing that once upon a time I let Sprint convince me that I needed to pay for 8+ GB per month of data.)
I'm not saying this is the right way for everyone to live. And I certainly haven't beat the twitch to reach for my phone nor have I perfected mindfulness - I still play Super Stickman Golf, watch MLB highlights, and browse Reddit while out and about - but I at least do it with some awareness of what I'm doing. The smartphone was never the problem. I was. And paying for what I use has helped me exercise some self-control.
Without Internet at home I ended up switching to T-Mobile's unlimited plan for $75 per month and just went with watching TV channels that I could get over the air and my phone as a hot spot for anything else I needed. Then when YouTube TV came around I signed up for that and found that I can use my phone as a hot spot and stream YouTube TV to the Chromecast and it works great. I don't have any problems with quality. The stream never fails, stutters or suffers from degradation. T-Mobile throttles the speed at which I can tether (definitely not full 4G) but it still doesn't cause any problems. I don't even have problems working from home either.