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First, see which prepaid providers have good coverage in your area. For example, T-Mobile's prepaid service has vastly different (worse) coverage than the postpaid service because you can't roam onto AT&T's tower with prepaid. I'd recommend the Nexus 4, if it ever comes back into stock (and you can wait that long). If Virgin Mobile has good service in your area, you might take a look at the Evo V 4G and the HTC One V.
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Dec 23, 2012 18:00
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Radbot posted:Assemble, dealseekers: I purchased through them a few weeks back and everything went through fine. I think I need to top off my T-Mobile accounts again with this. Radbot, what "Google Voice" trick are you talking about? Do you mean using Google Voice as a VOIP provider or just using Google Voice to hide your cell phone number?
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Dec 23, 2012 18:13
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I wasn't the one who posted about that, but I'd imagine the "trick" is/was using your GV number as one of your Fave Fives so that you effectively have unlimited voice minutes. Note that no T-Mo prepaid plan has this feature. I guess it could also mean using GrooVe IP in conjunction with GV, or that weird Asterisk-involving trick.
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Dec 23, 2012 18:22
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Cromlech posted:Would there be any goons in Sterling, IL on AT&T towers posting up here? My friend lives way out there, and his workplace is literally 3 blocks out of the range of 3g on the coverage map. Are the maps rough estimates, or could are they that cut and dry? CDMA phones do not work outside the US because other countries sat around and decided it was best for the private development of telecommunication services that they skip the balkanized, pre-ATT-breakup method of locking the hardware to the service provider. Here in the US it was seen as a good idea to give it another try just to make sure they make a good try at discrediting universal interoperability requirements.
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Dec 23, 2012 18:57
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The Entire Universe posted:CDMA phones do not work outside the US because other countries sat around and decided it was best for the private development of telecommunication services that they skip the balkanized, pre-ATT-breakup method of locking the hardware to the service provider. Actually, I think India and China have CDMA as well.
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Dec 23, 2012 19:10
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The Entire Universe posted:CDMA phones do not work outside the US because other countries sat around and decided it was best for the private development of telecommunication services that they skip the balkanized, pre-ATT-breakup method of locking the hardware to the service provider. Not true at all, there are plenty of CDMA networks all over the world, many of which will allow you to bring any CDMA phone and they'll activate it on their networks, unlike Verizon/Sprint who will only activate phones they sell you. But the primary intention of many of these networks is voice and not so much data, which is why going forward you don't see many unlocked CDMA smartphones.
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Dec 23, 2012 19:13
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Radbot posted:First, see which prepaid providers have good coverage in your area. For example, T-Mobile's prepaid service has vastly different (worse) coverage than the postpaid service because you can't roam onto AT&T's tower with prepaid. I think currently T-mobile allows prepaid users to roam for voice and non-MMS text, but not for data. You can see the difference in voice coverage maps when you compare T-mobile prepaid to a non-roaming MVNO like Simple Mobile.
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Dec 23, 2012 19:55
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Are coverage maps really THAT accurate, however? In Flagstaff, AT&T (and Straight Talk) both claim that there's good service but friends of mine there say they barely work at all and T-Mobile works best. AT&T claims to have good service in Vinton, IA but they actually have no towers at all there when I went two weeks ago. T-Mobile has some towers but they're 2G as a recent storm a year ago blew the others down. Sprint claims to have good coverage in Vinton as well but it's pretty much nonexistent.
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Dec 23, 2012 20:26
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ThermoPhysical posted:Are coverage maps really THAT accurate, however? In Flagstaff, AT&T (and Straight Talk) both claim that there's good service but friends of mine there say they barely work at all and T-Mobile works best. At least for T-Mobile's maps, the zoomed out views are very overly generous, and areas of "coverage" turn into swiss cheese when you zoom in. That said, you can clearly see an apples to apples comparison showing the effect including ATT voice roaming on T-Mobile's prepaid plans by comparing the voice coverage maps to GoSmartMobile, which is a T-Mobile subsidiary that only uses their native network with no roaming:
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Dec 23, 2012 21:25
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For reference here's T-Mobile's postpaid voice coverage maps. Besides the international roaming areas, it looks pretty similar to their prepaid area.
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Dec 23, 2012 21:31
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T-Mobile has two towers in Omaha and barely any when you get into far eastern Iowa. So either the postpaid T-Mo has a LOT of roaming added in, or they're way too generous. In fact, if you live in Omaha, T-Mobile won't even accept you trying to make an account and Straight Talk defaults to AT&T only. I'm wondering how AT&T's maps are.
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Dec 24, 2012 00:49
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Thanks for clearing up the confusion about T-Mobile's service area. I had forgotten that my bars go gray (no data) up in the mountains in Colorado, but I can still text/call. That honestly makes me feel a lot better about using the prepaid service, in case I'm stranded up there in a storm or something (I know, 911, but still).
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Dec 24, 2012 02:28
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Just got an MMS in my gmail that was sent to my GV number. I'm on T-Mobile. Sender of MMS on C-Spire. Maybe Google finally fixed the MMS issue on GV? This is the first time a photo didn't disappear into a black hole. The photo is tiny, but at least it came through.
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Dec 24, 2012 03:39
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I was also spammed with those ST refill texts but then I was never charged and my phone was deactivated. I've been on auto-refill for months and I just reactivated and "re-enrolled" in autopay with the same credit card it should have charged yesterday. If the service wasn't so cheap I'd go else where because everything else they do seems to be trash.
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Dec 25, 2012 02:41
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I just need to have $30 in my TMo pre-paid account on the day my monthly plan renews, right? Or do I need to make a $30 payment towards the plan specifically?
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Dec 26, 2012 01:06
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Just need the balance in your account.
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Dec 26, 2012 02:37
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Is there any problem with taking out the proxy in the APN settings for Straight Talk? I kept getting proxy timeouts and generally terrible data connection, and now that I removed it everything seems fine. And can ATT ST roam in Canada (Vancouver specifically)?
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Dec 26, 2012 03:21
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FISHMANPET posted:Is there any problem with taking out the proxy in the APN settings for Straight Talk? I kept getting proxy timeouts and generally terrible data connection, and now that I removed it everything seems fine. How do you do this, by the way?
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Dec 26, 2012 16:45
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Settings - More - Mobile Networks - Access Point Names
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Dec 26, 2012 16:53
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I've heard many things about AT&T's Straight Talk proxy. I've heard that, if you remove it, they won't be so quick to throttle or boot you because they can't track you as well, I've heard it actually makes SpeedTest.net's app work on Straight Talk if you remove it, I've heard that removing it speeds up your speeds quite a bit and ST won't/can't do anything about it. I'm not sure what's true and what isn't about it though.
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Dec 26, 2012 17:14
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ThermoPhysical posted:I've heard many things about AT&T's Straight Talk proxy. Whatever it is, it's miles better than Sprint. I'm halfway to just saying gently caress it and making the switch without looking. Between Sprint taking a massive nosedive in speeds the past couple/few months and my work wifi getting clamped down on by Google (turns out because a good part of what many of us do involves searching the internet Google thinks we're a bunch of DDoS scripters or some poo poo, meaning whenever I'm on wifi poo poo like push notifications don't work and any searches have a captcha) the $90-ish monthly for unlimited dialup that only works outdoors and thinly at that is not really being the bargain it was originally.
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Dec 27, 2012 15:19
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Does Straight Talk AT&T / Tmobile care about using tethering apps like wifi tether? I know on regular Tmobile you just change user agent and all is fine. Just trying to pick the best option. Can't wait to abandon Sprint.
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Dec 27, 2012 15:59
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Straight talk would probably send hired goons with bats to your house if you tried to tether.
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Dec 27, 2012 16:51
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Yeah I wouldn't recommend that. I'd either get T-Mo $30, or get StraightTalk and then supplement it with one of those free 2gb/month hotspots from Freedompop.com Edit: By the way, I noticed that people on Amazon.com occasionally sell T-Mobile refill cards below retail. I picked up a $50 refill for $40 shipped. All the better because I use Cardpool.com to convert my Xmas gift cards into Amazon credit so I'm not paying anything. Just make sure to double-check the cost plus shipping, sometimes they sneak in a bloated shipping cost to put it above retail. Zero VGS fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Dec 27, 2012 |
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Dec 27, 2012 17:16
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The Entire Universe posted:Whatever it is, it's miles better than Sprint. I'm halfway to just saying gently caress it and making the switch without looking. Between Sprint taking a massive nosedive in speeds the past couple/few months and my work wifi getting clamped down on by Google (turns out because a good part of what many of us do involves searching the internet Google thinks we're a bunch of DDoS scripters or some poo poo, meaning whenever I'm on wifi poo poo like push notifications don't work and any searches have a captcha) the $90-ish monthly for unlimited dialup that only works outdoors and thinly at that is not really being the bargain it was originally. http://www.wowt.com/factfinders/headlines/Money-Saving-Prepaid-Cell-Plans-183711171.html This story just came on WOWT in actual news form (I think they recycled it, to be honest  ).Anyway, according to Consumer Reports (and some Omaha people, I suppose), Straight Talk is the most popular prepaid service in Omaha. Honestly, I'd say switch. It may be cheaper to pay your ETF rather than your actual bill. When I move my phone to Google Voice, my ETF will be $50 but my bill will be $80.
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Dec 28, 2012 00:36
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Sprint ETFs are very high, it's the only thing stopping me from dumping them and going to prepaid and a Nexus phone. Luckily I've only got 6 months left on my contract.
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Dec 28, 2012 00:51
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blargle posted:Sprint ETFs are very high, it's the only thing stopping me from dumping them and going to prepaid and a Nexus phone. Luckily I've only got 6 months left on my contract. I got my Nexus S 4G back when it launched which was before they raised ETFs so I got grandfathered into the old ETF until I renew it later. I'd advise anyone who ordered a phone before the Sprint raised the ETF fee to look into prepaid a bit more closely if you actually want to switch because once you sign a new contract, you'll be in for the $350 one. ThermoPhysical fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 00:53
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Here's my update about the email I sent to support about the daily text/emails.quote:Thank you for your interest in Straight Talk Wireless. We are responding I don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but I stopped getting both emails and texts around the same time I received this response. If anyone is still getting them I'd recommend submitting an issue through their webpage.
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Dec 28, 2012 02:46
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They had pretty good phone support too, they forgot to send me my $45 voucher for my first month of service and the person just added a free month to my account, didn't take long at all.
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Dec 28, 2012 05:54
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For those with their number ported into google voice, does it show your google voice number when you make outgoing calls from the mobile phone? If it shows your random SIM card phone number instead, that's going to confuse the hell out of my friends/family.
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Dec 29, 2012 05:16
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blargle posted:For those with their number ported into google voice, does it show your google voice number when you make outgoing calls from the mobile phone? If it shows your random SIM card phone number instead, that's going to confuse the hell out of my friends/family. GV number as long as you: a. use the GV app to place a call b. manually tell your phone to use GV when placing a call (select the "prompt every call" setting in the GV app. c. tell the GV app to use your GV number for all calls I don't even know my T-Mo prepaid number. I just set the GV app to use my GV number for all calls. There is also a setting in GV where you can use the stock messaging app for GV texts. I don't use that...I just text and receive from the GV app.
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Dec 29, 2012 05:37
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blargle posted:Sprint ETFs are very high, it's the only thing stopping me from dumping them and going to prepaid and a Nexus phone. Luckily I've only got 6 months left on my contract. You'll get a return on the etf at 6 months (isn't it $100?) very fast. I'm at a year left on mine ($220) and pondering dropping sprint, and at 30 a month I make up for it after 6 months.
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Dec 29, 2012 05:43
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hotsauce posted:GV number as long as you: I don't see a dialer in the GV app nor any of these options in the settings section of the app, on an Android 4.1 phone.
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Dec 29, 2012 05:45
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blargle posted:I don't see a dialer in the GV app nor any of these options in the settings section of the app, on an Android 4.1 phone. This is in my main GV settings menu: 
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Dec 29, 2012 06:30
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plester1 posted:This is in my main GV settings menu: Don't people typically check the settings menu of software for stuff? Just curious.
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Dec 29, 2012 06:56
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I definitely don't have that option in my GV app. Maybe "this phone's number" does the same thing (it's set to my GV number).
blargle fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Dec 29, 2012 |
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Dec 29, 2012 15:28
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blargle posted:I definitely don't have that option in my GV app. Maybe "this phone's number" does the same thing (it's set to my GV number). Which version of the app are you running? (bottom of the settings screen) The Making Calls setting should be right there under Do Not Disturb, I'm not sure why it isn't.
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Dec 29, 2012 16:49
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0.4.2.72, latest from the market.
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Dec 29, 2012 16:58
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blargle posted:I definitely don't have that option in my GV app. Maybe "this phone's number" does the same thing (it's set to my GV number). How is "This phone's number" set to your GV number? Doesn't that mean your caller ID already shows as your GV number? Are you using Sprint integration or something?
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Dec 29, 2012 18:17
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Did everyone else pay  to port their number over to Google Voice? Everyone recommends it but nobody ever said you had to pay for it.
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Dec 31, 2012 02:43
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