In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past month, you may not have heard about the newest cellphone wireless provider: Republic Wireless.

Republic Wireless is a start-up wireless carrier with an intriguing offer: $19 a month (plus tax) unlimited everything wireless service.

• Unlimited minutes, data, & text
• No contracts or early termination fees
• No overages, ever!

Sound to good to be true? We thought so, so we decided to check it out.

Republic turns out to be a Sprint Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). What this means to you and me is that as we use our Republic Wireless cellphone as a cellphone, it rides on Sprint’s network for $19 a month, with unlimited usage.

Unlimited Sprint Usage?

Not really. What Republic Wireless does is use existing WiFi networks in a “Hybrid Model” whenever possible to cut down on your use of the Sprint cellular network. Since WiFi is free, there is no cost to Republic Wireless when you are on WiFi for calls or data. That’s how they can offer such a low monthly rate for “unlimited” usage.

The trick is transparency to the user

The way this is supposed to work is once you load the WiFi information for a location into your phone, the phone remembers it and automatically switches between Sprint’s cellphone service and WiFi whenever it detects the signal.

This transparent switching is the key. If I’m talking on the phone in the car and then walk into my home, the phone should switch between the cellular and WiFi networks automatically, seamlessly, and transparently. No dropped calls, missed calls, pops, disconnects, etc.

Think about it

When I’m at home, I have WiFi. When I’m at work, I have WiFi. Library – yes, McDonalds – yes, Starbucks – yes, Panera Bread – yes, most coffee shops or restaurants – yes, some municipalities – yes! It turns out that for most of our day, we are in WiFi range. When you are driving there is no WiFi, but while you may be talking, you’re not supposed to be texting or running data programs (except maps).

This may be a paradigm shift in wireless

We really like this idea. The idea of cutting cellphone bills from $80/month to $20/month saves $720/year. More phones? More savings. Your parents grew up paying $6/month for phone service and got TV reception for free. Now we spend $200 – $300 a month for the same service. That’s $2,400 – $3,600 a year to use the phone and watch TV…

Have you actually listened to the quality of a voice call on a cellphone lately? It stinks. The prices have gone up while the quality has gone down.

Why pay more for the same service? This is the promise of Republic Wireless. This is also the promise that should have ATT, Verizon, and TMobile shaking in their boots. It actually may help Sprint in the long run.

Metro PCS, Boost Mobile, Net10, and the other low cost carriers? They are toast. They will either have to change to the “hybrid” model, or die.

If it works, it is revolutionary. It will change the future of wireless.

Before you jump in, note that there are some requirements on phone usage. Republic Wireless calculates your Cellular Usage Index (CUI) based upon your last 7 days of activity. If it goes too high, they warn you and suggest ways to lower it. If you’re continually high, they ask you to leave.

What this means is that you need to be using WiFi for a good part of your month’s cellphone usage or you will be terminated. How much is too much?

Even assuming 0% wifi usage, for example, you could consume 550 minutes, send 150 texts, and download 300 megabytes of data without crossing the community’s fair use threshold.

Over time, if you don’t bring your CUI back into a reasonable range, we’ll help you find a more suitable, traditional cellular carrier. more…

We still believe the cellular maximum usage combined with the abundance of WiFi networks makes this $19 a month service a winner.

Is it worth a try?

We thought so. Republic only offered one phone at launch, the LG Optimus Android phone with our Hybrid Calling technology and Google’s Android version 2.3. It was $199 but we used a discount code for $100 off. Tough too beat that.

We were one of the lucky ones who actually managed to get through and purchase the phone before they sold out on day one. Right now, they are not accepting new customers. I’m sure they expected sales, I’m just not sure they knew how revolutionary this would be.

Our smartphone is due to ship on December 8th and we are awaiting it with optimistic trepidation. We will report here on the unboxing and setup, and follow it with several usage reviews. It should be fun so stay tuned and bookmark our site or follow us on Twitter for the latest reviews.