20
Feb
1

Republic Wireless Now Offering Its Motorola Defy XT For $99, But It Requires A $29 Monthly Plan

Posted by in Motorola, News, Republic Wireless

Republic Wireless just announced a new offer for those who have been considering the switch, but aren't willing to spend $250 for a Motorola Defy XT. Beginning today, the company has two options: buy the Defy XT for the existing price and pay $19 a month for service, or pay $99 for the phone and $29 monthly for the plan. Unlike traditional carriers that subsidize the prices of phones and lock you into a contract, however, there is no contract with Republic. Basically, it's going out on a limb and putting its good faith in you with this deal – and that's really saying something.

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According to the blog post announcing this new offering, Republic wants to cater to people who want to switch to the service, but can't justify the transition because of the $250 phone price. Of course, the monthly cost is a bit higher than the company's "traditional" plan, but at $30 a month for unlimited everything, it's still hard not to justify at least considering a switch.

On top of that, if you decide to buy before March 18, Republic will send you a $50 Play Store giftcard. That's pretty awesome in and of itself.

For the full skinny on this new deal, why the company chose to offer a more "mainstream" option, and what to do if you're a member who recently signed up with Republic and want to net some savings, head right here.

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Cameron Summerson
Cameron is a self-made geek, Android enthusiast, horror movie fanatic, and musician. When he's not pounding keys here at AP, you can find him spending time with his wife and kids, plucking away on the 6-string, or watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on repeat.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1312291338 Tim Miller

    Complete with the $50 play store credit, this is a heck of a deal. If I wasn't already rocking my Nexus 4 I'd consider it. Talk about a great way for people to get off of Verizon.

    • http://tonybullard.com toekneebullard

      Yeah, but the phone is not nice at all. My co-worker switched to republic, and he loathes the phone. I really think the biggest breakthrough for Republic would be if they could start a BYOP program.

      • moelsen8

        I'd probably make the switch for the heck of it at that point. i'm loving prepaid.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1312291338 Tim Miller

        Well, sadly, they're currently on Sprint's network so that won't work. I'd love to see them start up an AT&T or T-Mobile segment, though. I'd probably go for it in a heartbeat.

        • HopelesslyFaithful

          zthey still could get it to work with a note or something good.

  • JT

    I'm the perfect candidate to switch to this service it was made for people like me, I am near a wifi 90% of the time, don't talk a lot, to text use sms go chat & gvoice and even use groove ip for calls and I am still not switching, Why? because of the phone I have Gingerbread on my phone and I don't like gingerbread, after u use ICS or JB and see the difference you'll hate your phone . I have Telscape I can put $5 a month on my phone and gives me 100 min/text on sprint network but the best phone they have its the prevail with boost logo, the bad is: this are refurbished units, no warranty, Customer Service sucks, but I can do all that and have a real cellphone in case someone needs to reach me for $5 month, if I just needed wifi I owed a galaxy player (with gingerbread) so I won't be paying $19 when a I can pay $5 a month but if the introduce a decent phone with ICS or JB I'll switch in a heart beat in the meantime , they can even give me the phone for free and still I wont switch ( I even won a high end sprint phone here on AP and did not switch carrier) . I think if they just do that they'll see a lot of new customers.

  • Sly Ostinato

    The idea of a hybrid phone is great, BUT...RW is not the company that knows how to execute it. This is a company that "over-promises and under-delivers" EVERY...SINGLE...TIME. For example, RW is really playing up this "You asked, We listened" campaign as they roll out a cheaper price on the phone (but it costs more per month for service - they still will find a way to get their money out of you). Way before people were grumbling about the price of the phone, people were screaming for MMS (sending a picture message - a very basic dumbphone feature) and being able to speak with a live person to get actual customer support. Well, RW's response to both of those, which had far more vocal members, was and still is, "Umm, we don't feel like giving you that. So, tough luck, Charlie." Scuttlebutt has it that they are rolling out the cheaper price on the phone because they came no where close to meeting their lofty sales goal of 350,000 new subscribers by early 2013. Posters on their forums have been telling them for over a year now what they need to implement to make this idea really take off, but RW is stubborn and bullheaded and doesn't really want to listen to its customers. No, RW, you DON'T listen to your customers - despite what you keep telling yourself. This is a company in disarray. The founder of their mobile division and SVP, Brian Daly, left RW and several senior managers followed him out the door soon thereafter. Yeah, this company has problems. Anyway, forget the endless hoops they have you jump through to reach somebody by filling out countless ticket requests and sending email after email that never gets answered, just call them (I found these phone numbers over at Yelp, BTW).

    919-297-1100 - Jim Mulcahy, manager of RW
    919-297-1010 - David Morken, CEO
    919-439-7335 - Sean Rivers, director of customer service/admin of forums
    919-297-1040 - Joe Merrill

    919-297-1100 - automated company directory. Dial by last name to reach somebody.

    Amie Ashworth, customer experience manager
    Ben Armstrong, product manager
    Tim Jones, cell phone product specialist
    Sarah Davis, admin of forums
    Brent Pentecost, admin of forums
    Doc Shufelt, operations
    Jon Schniepp, engineering
    Jessica (Orr) Janes, marketing