Google Fi is adding the kind of a perk you normally only get when your wireless service comes from one of the major carriers.
The Google-owned wireless provider announced today (November 16) that new and existing customers with an Unlimited Plus plan at Google Fi are now eligible to receive a free year of YouTube Premium. That's the YouTube tier that offers ad-free streaming, downloadable videos and access to YouTube Music Premium.
Google Fi's Unlimited Plus is the carrier's most expensive plan at $65/month for a single line of data, but it also offers the most perks of any Google Fi plan. In addition to the new YouTube Premium benefit, Unlimited Plus users are able to use up to 50GB of data each month before their data speeds are slowed. They also get 100GB of storage via Google One. And Unlimited Plus customers can use their data plan at no additional cost when traveling in up to 200-plus countries, making Google Fi one of the best international phone plans.
The addition of YouTube Premium to the list of perks for Google Fi Unlimited Plus puts that plan in rareified company among discount data plans. Metro by T-Mobile offers Amazon Prime, which includes access to Prime Video, as part of its most expensive unlimited data plan for $60/month. Cricket Wireless incudes the ad-bsed tier of HBO Max with its Unlimited + 15GB of Hotspot Data Plan. And Verizon now includes six months of Disney Plus when you sign up for one its two prepaid unlimited plans.
Otherwise, if it's streaming services you value, you need to turn to the best unlimited data plans available from the major carriers. Verizon's Play More costs $80/month for a single line, but it includes the Disney bundle — subscriptions to Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus — along wih trials for Discovery Plus and Apple Music. T-Mobile's $85/month Magenta Max line includes an Apple TV Plus subscription, plus a year-long Paramount Plus trial; the cheaper Magenta plan keeps tht yer trial of Paramount Plus, but only gives you six months of Apple TV Plus.
Google Fi has established itself as a popular service if you opt for one of Google's phones, whether that's one of the Pixel 7 models or the Pixel 6a. But Google Fi sells other phones optimized for its service, including the Galaxy S22 phones, the latest foldable phones from Samsung and budget models from Motorola and Samsung. You can bring any phone to work with the carrier, but they won't be able to switch between networks seamlessly for optimized performance the way these other phones can.
YouTube Premium isn't necessarily a must-have perk, but its inclusion with Unlimited Plus plans at Google Fi shows how much the carrier wants to stand out from the other low-cost phone carriers that are out there.
