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And an update. My number got ported to GV from Verizon Wireless today, and I set up GrooVeIP while at work on the WiFi network. Holy mother of gently caress is this a beautiful thing. Now I can make and receive voice calls despite a lack of cell connection, will be able to receive texts in a few days via GV, and have better cell reception everywhere else in town. Sure, the phone conversations are slightly delayed due to being VoIP and such...but they're clear enough to understand. For $28.70/month, I'm definitely going to be happy with what amounts to a portable WiFi phone that can connect to the data network if need be.
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Jul 26, 2012 20:11
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MrMoose posted:And an update. I'm going to be joining the ranks shortly, except I'll be porting to GV from Sprint. Keep us updated on how GrooVeIP works for you. Also, why do you have to wait a few days to receive texts via GV?
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Jul 26, 2012 21:48
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Hughmoris posted:I'm going to be joining the ranks shortly, except I'll be porting to GV from Sprint. Keep us updated on how GrooVeIP works for you. Also, why do you have to wait a few days to receive texts via GV? 1) Try GrooveIP, and also the free app on the market called Talkatone. Talkatone has less lag for some and others it doesn't work at all. Play around and see. 2) The porting process can break texts and calls until it finishes.
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Jul 27, 2012 05:36
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Just to double check before I run out today and drop some cash... I can go to Walmart, buy a cheap prepaid T-Mobile phone and activate my $30/mo plan then turn around and put that SIM into an old post-paid phone and everything should be just fine?
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Jul 27, 2012 11:02
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Hughmoris posted:Just to double check before I run out today and drop some cash... Long as your "old post-paid phone" has T-Mo frequencies and takes T-Mo SIMs (or is unlocked to accept any SIM)
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Jul 27, 2012 15:47
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I switched to StraightTalk so that I didn't have to pay for a new phone, as I want to wait until Win8 phones come out before giving serious thought to upgrading off of my old E71. The ST upgrade was super painless, except the E71 doesn't have anywhere to set the MMSC info that they give, and now multimedia text messages don't send or receive, only text ones. Not that big of a deal, but just annoying. Edit - nevermind, just made a second APN for MMS settings, and that worked. jeeves fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 19:25
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Hughmoris posted:Just to double check before I run out today and drop some cash... ilkhan posted:yup. Whoa, whoa, just buy the SIM from T-Mo, it's 99 cents with free shipping http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Prepaid-SIM-Activation-Kit. Don't buy a whole phone just to get a plan; starting up an account on their SIM is enough to count you as a first-time customer for purposes of the $30 prepaid. If you already bought a Walmart phone, just get that 99 cent card, put it into the Walmart phone box, and return those; no harm no foul to the next person who gets it.
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Jul 31, 2012 02:42
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Backup phones make great alarm clocks/power outage flashlights.
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Jul 31, 2012 06:25
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I suppose, but for that you might as well drop $25-30 for Bad ESN Optimus or OG Droid phones on eBay. Having a $30 device that you can use as camcorder, wifi security webcam, standalone GPS (preload cached Google Maps), and a poor man's iPod Touch, that's a lot more utility for the money than trying to rough that stuff with a dumbphone.
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Jul 31, 2012 06:51
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Zero VGS posted:I suppose, but for that you might as well drop $25-30 for Bad ESN Optimus or OG Droid phones on eBay. Having a $30 device that you can use as camcorder, wifi security webcam, standalone GPS (preload cached Google Maps), and a poor man's iPod Touch, that's a lot more utility for the money than trying to rough that stuff with a dumbphone. But you also can't toss your SIM into a bad ESN CDMA phone & still get calls & texts if you accidentally drop your shiny GNex into a pool or something.
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Jul 31, 2012 07:06
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Piano posted:Backup phones make great alarm clocks/power outage flashlights. Also if I wanted to go rafting or something, I'd pull the dumbphone out of the box instead of risking my GNexus.
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Jul 31, 2012 08:45
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Does anyone have any experience with Republic Wireless? http://republicwireless.com/ I signed up for their beta awhile back, but today they started their "B" wave, and I guess they're going to start selling the Motorola DEFY XT. It just seems like it has that too good to be true vibe to me.
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Jul 31, 2012 21:42
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So I ran out of minutes on my TMobile plan. I have a balance and that's cool, but it seems like every time I call, I have to first listen to a message warning me that it will cost $0.10/minute, which is annoying. Does the message go away? Can I turn it off?
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Jul 31, 2012 21:56
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My wife is currently on a tmobile pay-by-the-minute plan with a dumbphone. We're looking at smartphones and plans; I think the $30/month tmobile plan makes sense for her. I was hoping that I'd be able to just switch plans and pop the sim into a new phone, but the website won't let me select that plan. Does anyone know what the easiest way to get an existing number w/tmobile onto the $30/mo unlimited data plan is?
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Aug 1, 2012 00:38
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Uthor posted:So I ran out of minutes on my TMobile plan. I have a balance and that's cool, but it seems like every time I call, I have to first listen to a message warning me that it will cost $0.10/minute, which is annoying. Does the message go away? Can I turn it off? Easy way is have more money in your account. I think it only triggers when you are low on cash.
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Aug 1, 2012 00:47
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spengler posted:My wife is currently on a tmobile pay-by-the-minute plan with a dumbphone. We're looking at smartphones and plans; I think the $30/month tmobile plan makes sense for her. I was hoping that I'd be able to just switch plans and pop the sim into a new phone, but the website won't let me select that plan.
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Aug 1, 2012 00:47
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T-Mobile are kind of dicks about porting a T-Mo number to another T-Mo account, prepaid or not. You might as well just port the number to GVoice and then get a 99 cent SIM from their site and make a new prepaid account. Using GVoice should be transparent to your wife, but if not you could port from GVoice to the $30 account.
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Aug 1, 2012 01:00
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Stick100 posted:Easy way is have more money in your account. I think it only triggers when you are low on cash. I just accidentally went over 100 minutes for the first time in the six months I've had the plan... lost a whole buck fifty. drat your corporate greed, T-Mobile! 
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Aug 1, 2012 01:03
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Stick100 posted:Easy way is have more money in your account. I think it only triggers when you are low on cash. Alright, I'm down to under $2.50 right now. I'm trying to see how far $35/month takes me; maybe I'll up it to $40/month next month. I ended up installing Prepaid Widget and it's pretty neat. You set it up to send #BAL#, #MIN#, and #WEB# to get your balance, minutes, and data used (respectively) from TMobile and set up widgets to display that info. It was a little confusing setting up at first, but seems to work nicely. I ended up paying the $2 for the pro version so it automatically updates every 24 hours and after every call that I make.
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Aug 1, 2012 01:39
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Uthor posted:Alright, I'm down to under $2.50 right now. I'm trying to see how far $35/month takes me; maybe I'll up it to $40/month next month. Or you can use the official TMo Android app, T-Mobile My Account.
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Aug 1, 2012 02:45
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Ah, neat. I see two in the store. Which is the "correct" one?
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Aug 1, 2012 03:04
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I don't know how you're seeing two. It should say it's published by T-Mobile USA and have the blue "Top Developer" legend to the right of that. Edit: Also the icon is a blank-faced dipshit holding out a phone, if that helps.
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Aug 1, 2012 04:26
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I see two, both by TMobile, both with the top developer icon. I think one's a beta? 
Uthor fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 04:55
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The first one is the one that came with my phone and it works great.
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Aug 1, 2012 05:02
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compton rear end terry posted:Does anyone have any experience with Republic Wireless? http://republicwireless.com/ I signed up for their beta awhile back, but today they started their "B" wave, and I guess they're going to start selling the Motorola DEFY XT. It just seems like it has that too good to be true vibe to me. I don't believe anyone in this thread is actually a member because they're still in pretty early beta, but what I've read so far is pretty good if you're around wifi a lot and don't need a superphone. I'm in Wave L so it doesn't look like I'll be getting one anytime soon.
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Aug 1, 2012 05:54
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Has anyone ever seen this before? http://www.freedompop.com/ It's a sleeve for iPhones/iPods that is just a 4G hotspot (via the provider ClearWire) with battery. The gimmick here is that you buy the device for $99, and then they supply you with 500mb of 4G each month for free. It's $10 a gig after that. Allegedly they let you trade unused data with others on social networks. I would assume that you could probably get this to work with any phone since it's just a hotspot, with case mods or just holding it in proximity. Also, it makes me think that you could buy several up front and trade the extra data to the one you use (i.e. 3 devices for $300 upfront for 1.5gigs a month). The downside I'd imagine is that if either this startup or ClearWire go out of business, you have a $99 paperweight. They say the 500mb a month is "guaranteed" but don't explain for how long or what happens if it isn't. Still, I could see myself exploiting this with Google Voice/GrooveIP for something ultimately cheaper than any prepaid plan, at the tradeoff of the least reliable voice service ever.
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Aug 1, 2012 05:59
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Zero VGS posted:Has anyone ever seen this before? http://www.freedompop.com/ I can see this work for a cheap low data user. You can just use Opera Mini to compress the bandwidth. Its not going to work as VOIP. The quality of VOIP is just not here yet. If you just use Skype as call out only you probably can get calls work 60-80% of the time.
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Aug 1, 2012 16:12
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Looking for advice on what would work best in my situation. Currently running 1500m/unlimited text/unlimited data on Verizon and nearly paying $200 a month for a family plan of 2 lines. Looking to lessen that and looking at options for that $30 tmobile plan. My only concern is not having service to receive phone calls over the data plan. Roughly use 1200 minutes and looking for some advice on what plan would work best for someone use to always having minutes available.
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Aug 2, 2012 06:23
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Straight Talk with unlimited minutes for $45/month sounds up your alley (if you're not a gigantic data user).
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Aug 2, 2012 06:50
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Uthor posted:Straight Talk with unlimited minutes for $45/month sounds up your alley (if you're not a gigantic data user). Not a huge user, me nor the wife. They have family plans or is $45 per? I don't think we use a ton of a data, we don't even hit 2gb between the both of us, however, I did just get sirius and would be nice to stream that every once in awhile.
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Aug 2, 2012 15:39
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You just get two individual $45 plans, which is better in case you two ever separate anyway.
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Aug 2, 2012 16:25
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Has anyone had issues with tethering on T-mobiles $30/mo plan? I am using CM7 and the built-in wifi hotspot feature.
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Aug 2, 2012 16:50
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Hughmoris posted:Has anyone had issues with tethering on T-mobiles $30/mo plan? I am using CM7 and the built-in wifi hotspot feature. I tether all the time, and do basic web-browsing and dropbox syncing, and no issues. I don't really move that much data, though. Nexus S with JellyBean.
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Aug 2, 2012 16:55
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Hughmoris posted:Has anyone had issues with tethering on T-mobiles $30/mo plan? I am using CM7 and the built-in wifi hotspot feature. I've used USB tethering with my Dell Venue Pro, but only infrequently and never more than about 600-800MB /mo. Some people have noted that they get website redirects that tell them to buy a tethering plan, but as far as anyone can tell all T-mobile is doing is snooping for your browser's useragent to look for evidence of a desktop browser. I've tethered with a VPN, so I haven't run into this.
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Aug 2, 2012 17:08
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I found a great craigslist deal on an Optimus Elite on Virgin. Bought it for $50, gave Virgin $35 to start up a plan, had a new number and a working phone within 15 minutes. Bam. Also, I'm pretty happy with the phone. It's fast enough for what I want to do (everything but games basically), battery life is okay, and I haven't had anything crash in nearly 24 hours so far. Huzzah
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Aug 2, 2012 17:10
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Mr.Trifecta posted:Not a huge user, me nor the wife. They have family plans or is $45 per? Well, if you want to go a little bit cheaper, you can port your numbers to Google Voice and get the $30/month plan, using Google Voice over the data network to not use up any minutes. Read this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1646755
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Aug 2, 2012 17:43
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rear end Catchcum posted:which is better in case you two ever separate anyway. hahah This actually happened to me. I was married and my wife and I had a shared plan. We switched carriers and it was cheaper at the time to have two separate accounts. WE DIVORCED WITHIN A YEAR. DON'T DO IT. (do it your wife is terrible)
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Aug 2, 2012 20:08
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Rooster Brooster posted:I tether all the time, and do basic web-browsing and dropbox syncing, and no issues. I don't really move that much data, though. Nexus S with JellyBean. It used to be perfect for me, but lately they have been cracking down on web browsing while tethered. Basically they block Desktop Websites. If I go to Yahoo.com on Chrome, I get an upsell page for the Tmo Hotspot feature. If I set it to m.yahoo.com, the mobile version, it goes through fine. HTTPS sites like facebook and google are fine if you set them to that. Ports are unblocked, so AIM works fine, and I can VPN into a computer to have full web browsing. There might be market apps that get around this block but I've been on CM9 built-in tethering and having these issues for the past few weeks.
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Aug 2, 2012 20:49
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Uthor posted:Well, if you want to go a little bit cheaper, you can port your numbers to Google Voice and get the $30/month plan, using Google Voice over the data network to not use up any minutes. Read this post: That's a great link, thanks. Now for those that use GV. How is the call quality when using it over the data plan and NOT wifi? Any dropped or missed calls? I would say I would use it more on the data plan then wifi as I am out and about quite a bit.
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Aug 2, 2012 23:59
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Mr.Trifecta posted:That's a great link, thanks. Now for those that use GV. How is the call quality when using it over the data plan and NOT wifi? Any dropped or missed calls? I would say I would use it more on the data plan then wifi as I am out and about quite a bit. MY GIRLFRIEND is about ready to throw her phone out the window after using it for a couple months with GrooveIP. I also have issues but can troubleshoot my way around them so they're less annoying, but echoing and dropped calls are still common. I'd only recommend it if you're really, really cheap and explain the flakiness ahead of time.
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Aug 3, 2012 00:23
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