We hope you’re as excited as we are for tomorrow’s launch. We’ve put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this project and it means a lot to us to share the final product with all of you. Tomorrow, we’ll be launching nine new phones and new plans. Unfortunately, we’re not quite ready to cross the finish line for our new Bring Your Own Phone (BYOP) feature and we’ll be delaying the launch of this feature until August 11, 2016. This delay only affects the ability to purchase a SIM card kit specifically for the BYOP feature. New phones purchased from us will come with SIM cards preinstalled and will not be affected by this delay.

We’ve built a solid foundation for our 3.0 platform and have been driving and testing a multitude of different scenarios on it for the past six months, including BYOP. The experience our members have is important to us and when we began working on the 3.0 platform about a year ago, we knew we needed to be extremely thorough in ensuring that whether you purchase a phone directly from us or you purchase service from us, the experience would be the same. BYOP introduces complex use cases with SIM card removal and replacement that we’ve built experiences around and are continuing to refine and polish. It’s this attention to detail and commitment to a great experience that resulted in a delay of our launch schedule.

While we’re pleased with how all of the components of 3.0 are working, due to the complex nature of BYOP and in good conscience, we don’t feel comfortable launching a feature that hasn’t been thoroughly vetted to our standards. We understand this will be a big disappointment for some and for that, we sincerely apologize. However, we would much rather delay the launch to ensure that we provide you with the highest quality experience than launch with a potentially subpar one.

In appreciation of your patience and understanding, you’ll be able to order a SIM card, free of charge, on August 11, 2016. All you have to pay is shipping, which will be a flat charge of $4 (taxes not included). Additionally, with this little bit of extra time, we’ll be able to run a small beta group that will have early access to a SIM card. If interested, please fill out this survey and we’ll randomly select interested participants next week.

We hope you understand our reasons for delaying this feature and we appreciate your patience as we work to ensure the best possible experience for all of our products and services. Please feel free to leave your questions and comments here.

P.S. If you currently have an approved BYOP phone, beginning tomorrow (July 28) you’ll be able to download the new Republic Wireless app on your 3.0 phone to check for compatibility. To download and install the new app, go to the Play Store on your phone, and search for Republic Wireless. Here’s a direct link as well.