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Stick100 posted:One thing that's too bad is every time you get a new prepaid sim you get a bunch of calls and texts for the old owner for a couple months. That part I'm concerned about if only because of how prepaid has a higher incidence of people who would have folks like collections agencies and whatnot calling. But I imagine that's an unlikely situation given that prepaid's becoming a little more high-profile, they wouldn't be so prevalent if people weren't flocking to them like office fatties to free pastries. You've still got people who hit a rough patch, but you also get people who just got sick and tired of carriers acting like a bunch of Jersey preschoolers.
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Dec 3, 2012 14:50
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The Entire Universe posted:That part I'm concerned about if only because of how prepaid has a higher incidence of people who would have folks like collections agencies and whatnot calling. Yup! Every time you get a new Sim you get a decent amount of collections calls/angry ex boyfriends. I swear every prepaid Sim is owned by an Allison or Andrea with finance/boy issues. As I said you can just switch to never answering unrecognized numbers and then calling back based on the voice mail/adding the contact.
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Dec 3, 2012 15:34
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I bought an AT&T microSIM + $45/mo plan from Straight Talk last month. I'm now waiting for my Nexus 4 to come in from Google. I haven't activated my account on ST or anything like that, preferring to wait until I get the phone. Is this okay to do? I don't have some type of time limit or anything for the plan, do I? Or does it start up when I actually make an account? Considering I bought the Nexus 4 on November 30th, I expect a bit of a wait. Just a bit. 
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Dec 3, 2012 16:21
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Wife has straight talk (ATT towers) and loves it. Can anyone recommend a decent used Android phone that has actual storage space for apps and a decent camera + flash? I'm guessing a captivate is probably my best bet here? She doesn't need anything fancy, just more app storage and android 2.3+ or ICS. Not much of a used phone market here locally so I'll probably have to find something online. I was hoping google would have back stock of the Gnex (what I have) that they'd sell off for cheap. I thought about the Nexus 4 but don't really feel like paying $300+, despite it being a nice phone (she has a habbit of breaking her phones)
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Dec 3, 2012 19:20
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Stick100 posted:Yup! Every time you get a new Sim you get a decent amount of collections calls/angry ex boyfriends. I swear every prepaid Sim is owned by an Allison or Andrea with finance/boy issues. As I said you can just switch to never answering unrecognized numbers and then calling back based on the voice mail/adding the contact. Well the boy stuff isn't always a function of financial stability (unless you're looking at someone whose whole life is a disaster and they have problems in general) but yep, I'm slightly concerned. On the other hand, a lot of fun can be had in the relationship by texting the offending caller about just finding out you're HIV positive or how the police came looking for them.
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Dec 4, 2012 05:22
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talkforgood is open for business apparently http://www.talkforgood.com/ they scrapped that $55 unlimited plan. They still have the $6 plan with pretty good rates on voice/data so it looks good for low/medium users. However, it appears data is only 3g?
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Dec 4, 2012 22:50
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The voice and text are reasonable but the data rates are straight bogus, especially for 3G. Maybe if you're constantly on Wifi and used the phone's built in data rationing you could somehow beat T-Mo/ST.
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Dec 4, 2012 22:56
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Zero VGS posted:The voice and text are reasonable but the data rates are straight bogus, especially for 3G. Maybe if you're constantly on Wifi and used the phone's built in data rationing you could somehow beat T-Mo/ST. Well, the $6 plan doesn't seem so bad, 6 cents per megabyte is reasonable. Most people use 200-300 megs a month, which comes out to $12 to $18 a month of data.
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Dec 4, 2012 23:00
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They let you buy an "add-on pack" of 150MB for $10. If you just allowed it as an overage it would be $9. Guys, basic math is a reason some of us aren't on post-paid, you know. When they reference "most reliable network", they're implying they're only an AT&T SIM, correct?
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Dec 4, 2012 23:11
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Zero VGS posted:They let you buy an "add-on pack" of 150MB for $10. If you just allowed it as an overage it would be $9. Guys, basic math is a reason some of us aren't on post-paid, you know. No, they're on Verizon. It says so in their BYOP section. Also, the fact that their coverage map shows south western Wisconsin, which nobody covers with GSM for some reason.
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Dec 4, 2012 23:17
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FISHMANPET posted:No, they're on Verizon. It says so in their BYOP section. Also, the fact that their coverage map shows south western Wisconsin, which nobody covers with GSM for some reason. Isn't Pageplus also a Verizon MVNO? They have a $40 unlimited talk, txt and 200 MB plan.
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Dec 4, 2012 23:27
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Hmm. This isn't smartphone related, but I'm the IT guy at work and we have 20 "emergency" dumbphones we're only supposed to use in the event of a landline outage. We pay Verizon probably some ridiculous amount for all the lines and the total package. I've tried to pitch prepaid before but the company insisted it had to be on Verizon. I might be able to talk them into this one.
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Dec 4, 2012 23:29
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Zero VGS posted:Hmm. This isn't smartphone related, but I'm the IT guy at work and we have 20 "emergency" dumbphones we're only supposed to use in the event of a landline outage. We pay Verizon probably some ridiculous amount for all the lines and the total package. I've tried to pitch prepaid before but the company insisted it had to be on Verizon. I might be able to talk them into this one. Page plus has a good prepaid card for $80 where it lasts 1 year and gives you 2000 minutes i think. Edit: Although, i think it'd be easy to forget to reload every year
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Dec 4, 2012 23:38
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Mister Fister posted:Page plus has a good prepaid card for $80 where it lasts 1 year and gives you 2000 minutes i think. I was going to suggest Tracfone, they have the same deal, but it's more expensive ($100 for 400 minutes per year). Your business process might be good enough that a yearly renewal wouldn't slip through the cracks, or it might be possible to be notified before your airtime expires or something?
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Dec 5, 2012 00:15
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Trying to get a Christmas present for myself, been bouncing around a few decisions in my head. I live in Ohio, and this is my most recent point from the "recommend me a plan thread":quote:Well now I'm ignoring all of that because T-mobile has no 4G or even 3G where I live. AT&T and Verizon both do, but I'd be paying a lot more. Why do both of them have a +$40 a month charge on top of the monthly fee? I'm new to this whole thing and that seems ridiculous. I guess it just feels weird using a 2 year old phone on a pre-paid plan, even if it is a smartphone. But gently caress $100 for a plan. I could do T-mobile, their prices were decent, but literally zero 4 or 3G coverage where I live kills me.
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Dec 5, 2012 18:15
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I am planning on getting a straighttalk plan, but not sure how to best go about getting it. I would consider porting my phone number to GV, but GV doesn't support porting my area code. To make matters more complicated, I also don't live there any more. I would like to get a straighttalk sim and port my current at&t number to it. 1) Do I need to do the port before I get the SIM? I assume the SIM comes with a number. Can I order the SIM, and then drop the given number when I port at a later time? 2) Do I need to be in the area to port the number? 3) AT&T services the area, will straighttalk have any trouble porting an AT&T number from the boonies if they don't have a presence there? (I'm a bit worried about the geographical limitations of porting). 4) My AT&T plan is nominally $39.99, but after fees, taxes, etc, I regularly pay $55-$60 depending. Straighttalk is $45 - will this turn into $55-$65 also? Or are they including taxes and everything already?
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Dec 5, 2012 20:04
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Delta-Wye posted:I am planning on getting a straighttalk plan, but not sure how to best go about getting it. I would consider porting my phone number to GV, but GV doesn't support porting my area code. To make matters more complicated, I also don't live there any more. I would like to get a straighttalk sim and port my current at&t number to it. 1. No you will port your number once you activate your SIM card. You'll be given a temporary phone number which will be changed to the ported number 2. No, you can be anywhere you want. I'm in Washington state with a Florida area code. See XKCD 3. No, no one cares where your area code is. 4. The taxes are included so it's $45/month unless you have to pay sales tax on your top off cards. You shouldn't but I seem to remember paying sales tax from Wal-Mart when I used Straighttalk. I think you are running into concerns because GV is having problems. That's an issue with the GV VOIP provider not able to service certain ranges of numbers. Like my number from Florida has that problem because it was in a MCI number block that GV can't port from. It sucks but all of the major cell phone providers shouldn't have a problem.
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Dec 5, 2012 20:18
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ThermoPhysical posted:I bought an AT&T microSIM + $45/mo plan from Straight Talk last month. I'm now waiting for my Nexus 4 to come in from Google. I haven't activated my account on ST or anything like that, preferring to wait until I get the phone. I would like to know when they start charging since I need to order one for my N4 as well.
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Dec 6, 2012 01:06
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The SIM card just sits there forever until you pay to start it up, or punch in a credit code from a prepaid card. It's like that for ST and T-Mo. The only weird thing that ST does is if you're porting a number in, you have to call them to do it before you create the account, not after.
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Dec 6, 2012 02:00
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Zero VGS posted:The SIM card just sits there forever until you pay to start it up, or punch in a credit code from a prepaid card. It's like that for ST and T-Mo. The only weird thing that ST does is if you're porting a number in, you have to call them to do it before you create the account, not after. For ST you can port the number in the online account setup actually.
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Dec 6, 2012 04:31
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Zero VGS posted:I might be able to talk them into this one. Whatever you do, do everything you possibly can to not give in to your natural predisposition to exaggerate every numerical figure which comes out of your mouth. I mean you should do this anyway, but when dealing with beancounters this is very important.
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Dec 6, 2012 04:45
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T-Mobile launched a new Prepaid carrier today: https://www.gosmartmobile.com/compare-prepaid-cell-phone-plans (Article here: http://www.tmonews.com/2012/12/t-mobile-set-to-launchpartnersupport-new-prepaid-brand-gosmart-mobile/) They have a $45/mo plan with unlimited talk, text and 5GB of "3G" data before throttling. That's undercutting their own $70 self branded monthly plan by $25. It's unclear what exactly constitutes 3G speeds though.
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Dec 6, 2012 18:17
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Naffer posted:T-Mobile launched a new Prepaid carrier today: Nice! This is pretty competitive and will work well for me if I ever start going over the 2GB/month on straighttalk.
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Dec 6, 2012 19:21
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Naffer posted:T-Mobile launched a new Prepaid carrier today: Looking at the coverage map it looks like it won't roam to AT&T/they also refer to the speeds as 3G only, so it's possible it will be slower than the TMobile "4G" plans. Definitively interesting alternative to straight talk.
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Dec 6, 2012 20:47
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Any idea how long I could leave a ST account dormant before they closed it? Curious about trying another carrier for a month and would rather not re-order another sim from ST and activate a new number.
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Dec 7, 2012 07:16
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dreesemonkey posted:Wife has straight talk (ATT towers) and loves it. Can anyone recommend a decent used Android phone that has actual storage space for apps and a decent camera + flash? I'm guessing a captivate is probably my best bet here? She doesn't need anything fancy, just more app storage and android 2.3+ or ICS. Quoting myself here but I ended up getting my wife a used Galaxy S2 Skyrocket - pretty decent phone. I paid $190 for it, which I think is a little much but they go for more on ebay so whatever. Couldn't bring myself to spend about double that on a Nexus 4 16GB that we'd have to wait weeks for anyway. Either way, seemed to be a good mid-range phone these days if anyone is looking for a good ATT tower phone for straight talk.
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Dec 7, 2012 21:04
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Rastor posted:Yes, on T-Mobile 3G/4G is the same thing, getting "4G speeds" is just a matter of whether your device supports faster HSDPA categories. And assuming you haven't exceeded the throttling limit, of course. So when you exceed the limit, are you throttled to 3G? Or when you go over you stop getting both 3G and 4G?
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Dec 8, 2012 20:09
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I bought a HTC One V for $50 as part of the Cyber Monday sale. I'm thinking I'll root it and get it all set up exactly how I want before activating, so that I minimize my cell service downtime (I've never rooted before, so I'm planning for things to not go perfectly smoothly, to be safe). Will I still be able to activate the phone after I've rooted it? Based on my current understanding of how this all works the answer should be yes, but I figured I'd check with you guys to confirm.
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Dec 8, 2012 20:25
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Back when I had my Optimus V they wouldn't let you activate with anything else but the stock rom. I'm not sure if that has changed or not though.
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Dec 9, 2012 04:27
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Sub Rosa posted:So when you exceed the limit, are you throttled to 3G? Or when you go over you stop getting both 3G and 4G? There's no difference between 3g or 4g on tmo, it's all the same thing for now. When you go over they throttle to around 70kbps.
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Dec 9, 2012 04:56
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Tamtam posted:I bought a HTC One V for $50 as part of the Cyber Monday sale. I'm thinking I'll root it and get it all set up exactly how I want before activating, so that I minimize my cell service downtime (I've never rooted before, so I'm planning for things to not go perfectly smoothly, to be safe). Will I still be able to activate the phone after I've rooted it? Based on my current understanding of how this all works the answer should be yes, but I figured I'd check with you guys to confirm. Root does not change any part of the phone that is integral to the activation process. Basically all a phone needs to hop on a carrier network is a functioning radio and a white-listed IMEI. As long as you haven't used your root powers to strip out the setup wizard you'll be fine.
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Dec 9, 2012 06:16
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Long Francesco posted:There's no difference between 3g or 4g on tmo, it's all the same thing for now. When you go over they throttle to around 70kbps. When I've been throttled I go to 2g EDGE and it's about 200kbps.
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Dec 9, 2012 06:47
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There is a new T-Mobile prepaid option that looks really good: https://www.gosmartmobile.com/ They have a $45 Unlimited plan that has 5GB of 3G before throttling. So basically it's Straight Talk + an extra three gigs of fast speed data. What are the downsides to this compared to the $30 plan? They aren't advertising 4G anywhere, but if T-Mobile doesn't actually have a difference in 3G/4G I'd still get faux 4G on this plan, right?
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Dec 9, 2012 15:49
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When I was throttled it stayed on hspa and was capped at ~70kbps. Sometimes it was a lot faster. They seem so disorganized its probably different for every tower you connect to so who knows what it's really supposed to be. Just know you're going to be throttled to something slow if you go over your limit.
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Dec 9, 2012 16:18
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Sub Rosa posted:There is a new T-Mobile prepaid option that looks really good: https://www.gosmartmobile.com/ Yea, if this can be confirmed to cover HSPA+ then I'd switch from the $30 plan. 100 minutes isn't quite enough for me, but I justify the $30 plan by just adding money to my account and going over the limit. But recently I've been using more than $15 extra, so this plan would make sense if the data is T-mobile HSPA+.
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Dec 9, 2012 16:50
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It sounds like it will be over HSPA+, but they will throttle you to what they deem "3G" speed to be.
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Dec 9, 2012 16:56
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ProjektorBoy posted:Root does not change any part of the phone that is integral to the activation process. Basically all a phone needs to hop on a carrier network is a functioning radio and a white-listed IMEI. As long as you haven't used your root powers to strip out the setup wizard you'll be fine. Here's what I was remembering, from xda quote:Rooting is the process of gaining administrative rights to the phone so one can do customizations that aren't normally allowed. Root by itself doesn't do anything interesting, unless there's an app that needs it. The fancy stuff comes from custom ROMs. Just remember Virgin Mobile Activation only works on Froyo ROMs, so do it before going to Gingerbread. Not sure if anything has changed with the newer phone line up.
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Dec 9, 2012 17:31
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I suspect GoSmart won't be able to use LTE, while monthly4G will. Once LTE hits that will matter to some degree. HSPA+ is already pretty fast.
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Dec 9, 2012 17:33
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Sub Rosa posted:There is a new T-Mobile prepaid option that looks really good: https://www.gosmartmobile.com/ Judging by the service maps, it looks like GoSmart Mobile won't allow Voice/2G roaming on at&t towers, so that's something to consider. Puts me out of the market 
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Dec 9, 2012 18:51
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SB35 posted:Judging by the service maps, it looks like GoSmart Mobile won't allow Voice/2G roaming on at&t towers, so that's something to consider. Puts me out of the market Their map looks pretty much exactly like Simple Mobile's map so you're probably right. Does anyone know if Straight Talk's T-Mobile Sim roams on ATT for voice/txt or data?
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Dec 9, 2012 19:45
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