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LiquidRain posted:You have to get the cheapest phone from Virgin and then modify the IMEI of your Evo 3D to your crap phone's IMEI. That's how folks bring in their own phones to Ting. Don't buy straight from Virgin, buy a used Samsung Intercept. It's literally garbage so they're dirt cheap but they have good IMEIs which is all that matters in this case. Also you have to activate a phone on VMo & get some account info off it to tranfer onto your new one, which you can only do on an Android afaik.
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Jul 4, 2012 02:50
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I just got bill-raped by ATT and I am finally getting off that loving service. I have been waiting due to not having a lot of money, but honestly a huge EVO purchase upfront is better than continuing to pay 80$ a month for the privileged of having the cheapest unlimited text message plan on ATT. I've been putting this off since I want an actual decent phone, which looks like the EVO. However, you guys are intriguing me with the whole VM IMEI swapperoo, as I don't really like the idea of plopping down the VM-mandated list price for the phone. Is there anywhere I can read more on this? Even on Amazon a sprint Evo 4G is only like $220. I just don't know if that $80 difference is worth the hassle, if it is a headache to do the whole IMEI thing.
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Jul 4, 2012 17:34
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Arcsech posted:Don't buy straight from Virgin, buy a used Samsung Intercept. It's literally garbage so they're dirt cheap but they have good IMEIs which is all that matters in this case. Wait, you can change the IMEI on your phone? So you could get a galaxy nexus and change the IMEI to a VM IMEI and use it on VM??
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Jul 4, 2012 17:39
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Mister Fister posted:Wait, you can change the IMEI on your phone? So you could get a galaxy nexus and change the IMEI to a VM IMEI and use it on VM?? In theory, although you'd have to use as Verizon or Sprint one since the radio still has to be compatible. Also, IMEI swapping is something that phone makers try pretty hard to keep you from doing, and you'd better make sure you either zero out the IMEI on the donor phone or never let it turn on it's radio ever because bad things happen when two phones with the same IMEI try to connect to the cell network at the same time and it's really obvious to the network operator so if that happens you'll get kicked off. And like I said, you also need some info associated with your account to use data on VM, which is like 20 extra hoops to jump through and involves rooting both phones and using a bunch of utilities that you can only get from extra sketchy download sites. Oh, and pray your drivers work the first time or else that's several more hours of loving around. It's not really worth it, if you really want a GNex get a GSM one and go to TMo.
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Jul 4, 2012 18:24
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You can, it's illegal in the US and if virgin ever figures it out you'll get dropped faster than you can blink, but you can do it. However, I don't think bringing a phone not on virgin already would work very well, virgin does some sort of strange black magic with their sms/mms which apparently requires a virgin mobile specific rom to work on. If you swapped a virgin IMEI onto an evo 3d you could then simply flash the evo 3d with the stock evo v rom and it'll all work, but a nexus you'd have to figure out how to get messaging to work and you might have activation issues as well. Edit: and beaten.
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Jul 4, 2012 18:26
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Guys getting a non-VM phone onto VM is extremely difficult, either borderline or fully illegal, and unlikely to work well due to the fact that VM uses different servers for data/mms than Sprint uses. Besides all those above reasons, the whole discussion is kind of  , please drop it.jeeves posted:I just got bill-raped by ATT and I am finally getting off that loving service. I have been waiting due to not having a lot of money, but honestly a huge EVO purchase upfront is better than continuing to pay 80$ a month for the privileged of having the cheapest unlimited text message plan on ATT.
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Jul 4, 2012 23:12
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Rastor posted:Guys getting a non-VM phone onto VM is extremely difficult, either borderline or fully illegal, and unlikely to work well due to the fact that VM uses different servers for data/mms than Sprint uses. quote:Have you considered getting on Straight Talk, thus using AT&T's towers without giving them (much) money? I'm on a lovely E71 that crashes at the drop of a hat, so I might as well just buy a new phone and saving an extra 10$ a month on VM than Straight Talk. Plus gently caress ATT forever.
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Jul 4, 2012 23:41
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Am I correct in assuming there is no way to make either my VM phone or prepaid TMo phone function as anything more than wifi PDAs while I'm in Canada for a week?
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Jul 5, 2012 03:49
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Straker posted:Am I correct in assuming there is no way to make either my VM phone or prepaid TMo phone function as anything more than wifi PDAs while I'm in Canada for a week?
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Jul 5, 2012 04:22
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mixitwithblop posted:http://nvonews.com/2012/07/01/samsung-galaxy-nexus-banned-in-the-us-is-galaxy-s3-on-apple-radar/ Nooooo I was literally JUST coming online to buy one! God drat it. 
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Jul 5, 2012 07:33
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BlackFrost posted:Nooooo I was literally JUST coming online to buy one! God drat it. Sucks. I got my order in Monday morning and it shipped late last night.
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Jul 5, 2012 09:10
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LiquidRain posted:If your TMo phone is unlocked you could try Wind Mobile if you're in a large city, but even then it may not be optimal. :/ SIMs are $25 but they may want you to sign up for an account. Prepaid temp SIMs just don't exist here. Yeah, I'm another OV + gnex guy... it's not that important to me, I'll be around family with phones, I probably won't even bother setting up GV for when I'm on wifi. Thanks though!
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Jul 5, 2012 09:21
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BlackFrost posted:Nooooo I was literally JUST coming online to buy one! God drat it. There's no reason not to try. I think the worst that could happen is that Samsung/Google can no longer get new shipments from the manufacturing facility. So they can probably still sell through their remaining stock. If they're still taking orders you should just go ahead; I'm sure they'd refund you if they end up being unable to fulfill it.
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Jul 5, 2012 19:09
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Well, the page says "Coming Soon" and only has a place to input your email for updates, so you can't really try ordering now.
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Jul 5, 2012 19:17
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Sir Lemming posted:There's no reason not to try. I think the worst that could happen is that Samsung/Google can no longer get new shipments from the manufacturing facility. So they can probably still sell through their remaining stock. If they're still taking orders you should just go ahead; I'm sure they'd refund you if they end up being unable to fulfill it. Yeah, as the guy above says, the page no longer lets you purchase it. The phone still goes for around $500 on all the other sites, too. drat it all.I'll sign up for the email and hope for the best. I suppose I can't hate Apple for taking advantage of the patent system like that, but couldn't they have just waited like, one more week? Haha.
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Jul 5, 2012 19:49
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Yeah sorry 'bout that, I'm a bit behind on my internet this week 
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Jul 5, 2012 20:22
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Sir Lemming posted:There's no reason not to try. I think the worst that could happen is that Samsung/Google can no longer get new shipments from the manufacturing facility. So they can probably still sell through their remaining stock. If they're still taking orders you should just go ahead; I'm sure they'd refund you if they end up being unable to fulfill it.
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Jul 5, 2012 21:47
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Ars Technica is reporting about this (they say the phone was pulled on Tuesday) and quote Google as saying it will be back in two weeks when they get Jelly Bean running on it. Unfortunately, it also says that Google will be turning off the infringing local search function via an OTA update for all the phones out there.
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Jul 5, 2012 23:21
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Uthor posted:Ars Technica is reporting about this (they say the phone was pulled on Tuesday) and quote Google as saying it will be back in two weeks when they get Jelly Bean running on it.
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Jul 6, 2012 00:35
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Uthor posted:Unfortunately, it also says that Google will be turning off the infringing local search function via an OTA update for all the phones out there. How big of a deal is this? I was planning on ordering a Galaxy Nexus next month when my current contract is up and going with Straight Talk (thanks thread!), but since it will be my first smart phone I don't really know if 'local search function' is something that's important or not.
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Jul 6, 2012 02:45
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DEO3 posted:How big of a deal is this? I was planning on ordering a Galaxy Nexus next month when my current contract is up and going with Straight Talk (thanks thread!), but since it will be my first smart phone I don't really know if 'local search function' is something that's important or not. Unless you've got a lot of poo poo thrown around your disk space that you want to look for on a whim it's really not handy. I've never used the feature on both iPhone and Android because I usually know how to find something pretty easily. It's handy if you have a bad memory or you're searching for old poo poo on your phone.
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Jul 6, 2012 03:18
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Basically, if you search for something, it will search your files and apps in addition to the Internet. Like the guy above said, I never use it, but I am anal about keeping everything organized.
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Jul 6, 2012 04:28
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Well hey, my prepaid TMo gnex roamed onto Rogers just fine... 20 cents a text is reasonable for emergencies but not sure I want to find out how expensive $10/mb for data works out to in practice 
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Jul 6, 2012 06:59
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Straker posted:Well hey, my prepaid TMo gnex roamed onto Rogers just fine... 20 cents a text is reasonable for emergencies but not sure I want to find out how expensive $10/mb for data works out to in practice $10 per megabyte? Jesus. Be sure to turn off automatic updating for all your apps. I wouldn't even try to gently caress with that.
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Jul 6, 2012 07:06
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moms pubis posted:$10 per megabyte? Jesus. Be sure to turn off automatic updating for all your apps. I wouldn't even try to gently caress with that. Seriously. I've got a 1GB data add-on, and I get by on that (lots of wifi hotspots around here). Isn't there something similar you can do for your phone?
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Jul 6, 2012 09:36
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anakha posted:Seriously. I've got a 1GB data add-on, and I get by on that (lots of wifi hotspots around here). Isn't there something similar you can do for your phone? Enjoy your time here in Canada! Go check cell plan prices with a few spare minutes if you feel like having a laugh at our expense. 
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Jul 6, 2012 14:12
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Straker posted:Well hey, my prepaid TMo gnex roamed onto Rogers just fine... 20 cents a text is reasonable for emergencies but not sure I want to find out how expensive $10/mb for data works out to in practice For that kind of rate, I would Droidwall the gently caress out of the phone and only allow google voice to go through. When I was in china I had to do it. The carriers changed their policy once you activate a sim you can't change to a higher bandwidth plan until next cycle date. I don't know why would they do this. When I was in China 4 years ago they let you upgrade in the middle of the plan. But 4 years ago they only had edge.
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Jul 6, 2012 16:09
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I don't see it mentioned in the OP, but apparently Simple Mobile is a thing? I'm visiting stateside in a bit and would like to get some mileage out of my Galaxy S3. Tmobile seems the best option unless I want to give AT&T money, which I have sworn never to do again. Simple Mobile seems more popular than either StraightTalk or Tmobile's branded prepaid service, so I was curious what the deal was.
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Jul 6, 2012 18:47
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tirinal posted:I don't see it mentioned in the OP, but apparently Simple Mobile is a thing? I'm visiting stateside in a bit and would like to get some mileage out of my Galaxy S3. Tmobile seems the best option unless I want to give AT&T money, which I have sworn never to do again. Simple mobile uses T-mobile towers and basically have two different (non-blackberry) plans that come with data. $40 Unlimited minutes/texts/"3G data" $60 Unlimited minutes/texts/"4G data" The $60 plan throttles you after 2 or 3 GB so it is identical to the $60 prepaid plan from T-mobile. The $40 plan throttles you the whole time to ~200kbit, which is more in the range of reasonable edge (2G) speeds, but you're not going to be downloading anything quickly. If you just want data for email and basic web (think mobile sites with nearly no images) then that would probably work, but it's not that great a deal. If you don't want to give AT&T money you can get a straight talk SIM that operates on T-mobile towers for $45/mo that is identical to the straight talk plan for AT&T.
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Jul 6, 2012 19:03
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And for the record, it is mentioned in the OP.
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Jul 7, 2012 00:38
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swarthmeister posted:1) That's how it works in theory. I bought the SIM kit, and attempted online activation. Should've been simple, the steps aren't difficult or anything, but for some reason the page would just refresh rather than proceed when I clicked to submit the info. Anyway, I called up T-Mobile and described the problem to the phone support guys, and still managed to get on the "online only" 5GB+100min+∞text plan (probably because it was a new activation - ported the old number to T-Mobile later, after comparing coverage). This is a month old, but I tried activating online, got a bad activation code error, called up TMobile, and they activated the phone with the $30/month plan no problem. They butchered my last name, but I updated it myself on the website. I was a bit surprised to find Web Guard turned on for my phone by default, though. I randomly saw it while playing with the account settings. Be sure to turn that off unless you hate porn!
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Jul 7, 2012 07:36
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Yeah, I'm not playing with fire, leaving my phone on airplane mode and I have free wifi nearly everywhere I'll be anyway... just posted because I did get one incoming text as soon as I first turned airplane mode off, followed by an automated TMo "lol prepare to get hosed if you keep using your phone" text, and I thought it was interesting I could use it at all. Being a prepaid account, I assume they wouldn't let me go too far into debt anyway, presumably just whatever the latency is between Rogers and TMo's accounting systems? Though even an hour is scary as gently caress, that could be like $200 worth of data even at EDGE speeds if a stray update or two went through while I wasn't paying attention. I did find it interesting that the TMo text said 20c per text sent, implying I could keep getting them for free, but not going to risk testing that, and my old OV still has my "real" number anyway, so not like I was planning on getting anything on my Nexus anyway. And I'm actually Canadian myself, just have a green card and been living in the US for the last 4 years. It's amazing that any country has even worse phones, cell plans, cell networks etc. than the USA. but thanks liquid
Straker fucked around with this message at 08:37 on Jul 7, 2012 |
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Jul 7, 2012 08:35
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I just switched from a verizon lte phone to t-mobiles $30 a month prepaid and an unlocked galaxy nexus. The plan is 100 voice/unlimited text and data up to 5gb.. I seem to be getting good coverage and hspa speeds. Is the data on this plan throttled at all or is it full speed until I hit 5gb?
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Jul 8, 2012 15:29
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It's all the HSPA+ you can eat until you hit the cap.
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Jul 8, 2012 15:33
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This will sound like a really stupid question, but T-mobile's website isn't helping at all. How do I PAY for a monthly prepaid bill? I have the $30 month plan through T-Mobile with 100 minutes. I bought a $100 a month prepaid card when I started the service a month ago and put it on the account. When it activated, $36 was taken from the $100 balance, leaving my account balance at 63.74. Instead of taking the monthly bill out today when it said my bill was due, I just don't have any data today. Going on to My T-Mobile on their website, I can see that my prepaid balance is 63.74, payment status is UNPAID, and my next charge date is blank (it was 7/8 until today). I can't find any option to pay the $30. It seems like all I can do is add more money to my account, which isn't necessary. What am I missing here?
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Jul 8, 2012 22:22
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Jolo posted:This will sound like a really stupid question, but T-mobile's website isn't helping at all. I had this issue last month when my first renewal date came up. I had to call them to get it sorted out.
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Jul 8, 2012 22:26
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Tremors posted:I had this issue last month when my first renewal date came up. I had to call them to get it sorted out. Also confusing is the statement in the terms and conditions that if you don't have 60 days' money in your account, they'll switch you to pay-as-you-go (ie not the $30 monthly plan). And yet that doesn't seem to have happened for me. Not sure how that's supposed to work.
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Jul 9, 2012 00:19
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berzerker posted:Also confusing is the statement in the terms and conditions that if you don't have 60 days' money in your account, they'll switch you to pay-as-you-go (ie not the $30 monthly plan). And yet that doesn't seem to have happened for me. Not sure how that's supposed to work. My reading of that section is that if your account expires and you don't add money to renew within 60 days, it switches you to PAYG. You don't need 60 days worth of money in your account.
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Jul 9, 2012 01:07
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Yeah seconding that you don't need 60 days worth. I add the exact $30 I need about three days before my time is up each month. I carry no extra balance on my account so 90% of the time I have the current month paid and a $0.00 balance and it's fine. On the note of HDSPA+, I forgot how fast that poo poo is on a SGSII. I just got one off eBay and told Google to restore my apps and data. It nabbed 200mb in 5 seconds, and filled my notification bar to be about 4 pages long with the deluge of app installations.
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Jul 9, 2012 01:34
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How do the ten cents a minute for minutes past 100 work? Do they pull those out of your balance after each call you make with your 100 used up? These things would be clearer if there was some kind of invoice or billing documentation.
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Jul 9, 2012 16:02
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