If you’ve been considering saving some money by jumping on board with Wi-Fi first MNVO Republic Wireless, today’s announcement may well catch your interest, though the changes won’t go into effect until July. In the past, Republic Wireless has been plagued by a device selection that’s meager at best, due to the fact that their special network-hopping software had to be integrated deep into a phone’s system software, which required close partnership with the manufacturer. This meant that their device stable was limited by the manufacturers that would partner with them, as well as being limited to the small stable of devices that they had the time and manpower to equip with the special software. This also meant of course, that bringing your own device was out of the question.
According to today’s announcement however, would-be Republic Wireless users who either left or never came on board because they wanted better devices will have their wish granted in July, with the rollout of the RW3.0 framework. Rather than being deeply integrated in the system software, the new framework uses special tricks in Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) and up to perform deep network management through a simple app obtainable through the Play Store, though it still requires a few device-specific tweaks. This means that Republic Wireless will be able to offer a wider stable of devices and debut them at the same pace that other carriers do. The announcement named seven particular devices that can be purchased through Republic Wireless or brought over once the changes go live in July.
The phones mentioned were the Huawei Nexus 6P, Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, Samsung Galaxy J3, LG Nexus 5X and Moto X Pure. Users who have these devices lying around can bring them over, or the devices can be bought from Republic, with the option to take advantage of financing. The announcement also said that more devices will be joining the stable of compatible handsets in the near future. Root junkies beware however; the post failed to mention if rooted devices and custom ROMs were compatible and with device-specific tweaks being needed for them to work, it’s quite possible that you’ll have to unroot your device and flash it back to stock before it will play nice with RW3.0.