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Uthor posted:Sorry for the stupid question, but I want to get my sister set up with a Nexus 4 on Straight Talk as simply as possible (I will be helping her remotely, which is never fun). When looking at Straight Talk SIMs, it asks for "Unlocked GSM Phone (Phone must operate in 850 and 1900 MHz bands)" or "T-Mobile Compatible Phone". Which do you pick? Also, will the SIM card you get fit the Nexus 4 or require trimming? I don't see a place to pick the size. It doesn't matter as the Nexus 4 is both of those things. You should be getting a micro SIM for T-Mobile and that size is the exact size the 4 uses.
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Jul 7, 2013 23:02
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ThermoPhysical posted:It doesn't matter as the Nexus 4 is both of those things. You should be getting a micro SIM for T-Mobile and that size is the exact size the 4 uses. High five! Thanks She had Android before, so the rest of the setup should be simple.
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Jul 8, 2013 00:26
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Does anyone know if you can reactive net10 accounts while overseas? I'm going to be traveling for business for a few months, but I'd like to be able to turn it back on before I come back so I can have a connection at the airport back.
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Jul 8, 2013 00:29
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Uthor posted:High five! No problem!  TLG James posted:Does anyone know if you can reactive net10 accounts while overseas? I'm going to be traveling for business for a few months, but I'd like to be able to turn it back on before I come back so I can have a connection at the airport back. I don't see why you wouldn't be able to. If you can get a hold of them over the phone or on their website, you should be able. They'd still bill your American card and everything.
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Jul 8, 2013 01:15
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ThermoPhysical posted:No problem! Sometimes the poo poo doesn't work unless you are actually on an AT&T network at the time. I know I've had issues with Sprint/Caribbean with that.
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Jul 8, 2013 04:54
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Can anyone make a recommendation on good European prepaid providers? Heading to France/Switzerland next month and I'm hoping I can just buy a SIM (either online here or once I get there) that I can pop into my unlocked HTC One. I'm mostly interested in data, minutes/SMS aren't really necessary.
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Jul 11, 2013 16:14
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I posted this over in the T-Mobile thread and then found this thread and figured I'd try here too to see if anyone had any additional advice. I'm considering jumping ship from Sprint soon and moving two lines over to T-Mobile. After looking at our Sprint usage for the last 3 months I've determined that we don't use a lot of minutes with data and text being the major uses of our two phones. When we do make phone calls I'd say 99% of our calls that last more than 5-10 minutes are made from home where we do have wifi. The $30 prepaid plan for 100min/unlimited text/data feels like it could be a good fit for both of our lines. Now in order to make this work we'd need to use wifi calling when we are home (where we make and receive the majority of our calls) but I know you can't use T-Mobile's built in wifi calling on a prepaid plan. It looks like Groove IP + a Google Voice account is a simple and easy way to do wifi calling on your own and fit our needs at home as we do occasionally go over 100 minutes of talk a month on each of our lines (but again those long calls happen when home). Is there anyone here who uses this kind of setup for wifi calling on a prepaid T-Mobile plan? If so, how is it working out for you? Are you able to make and receive calls without issue? Now in addition it was brought to my attention in the T-Mobile thread that Google Voice doesn't work with MMS messaging which I know we want. As I understand it if we were to go this route we'd basically have to use two separate numbers. The number T-Mobile would give us when we want to send/receive texts (or make/receive calls when away from wifi) and our Google Voice numbers when wanting to make and receive calls over wifi. Can anyone provide information on if they've found a work around for this or if I am way off base? The other option I'm considering is to switch to Ting which I'm also sure would be fine and fit our needs but I liked the idea of unlimited texting and unlimited (well 5g) high speed data. If it matters at all we are looking into getting Galaxy S4s. Thanks in advance for any tips or advice!
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Jul 14, 2013 00:48
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Well, after you use the 100 minutes it's 10c/min so depending on your usage going over 100 isn't a big deal, just keep a few extra bucks in your account. If I'm at home or somewhere with good wifi and know I'm going to be on the phone a while or calling the pizza guy I just use voip with a different number to save my minutes. I personally wouldn't bother with Google voice as my main number, there's too many things that don't work correctly or at all like mms. I hardly ever use mms but the few times a month I'd want to send or receive a picture makes it a deal breaker for me.
Long Francesco fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 14, 2013 02:34
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Protip posted:The other option I'm considering is to switch to Ting which I'm also sure would be fine and fit our needs but I liked the idea of unlimited texting and unlimited (well 5g) high speed data. If it matters at all we are looking into getting Galaxy S4s. Don't switch to ting, the difference between data networks on TMO and sprint is night and day. I cant believe I put up with sprint for so long.
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Jul 14, 2013 19:04
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BotchedLobotomy posted:Don't switch to ting, the difference between data networks on TMO and sprint is night and day. I cant believe I put up with sprint for so long. Yeah while we haven't really had issues with Sprint's network (no dropped calls, and coverage everywhere we go) I definitely wanted to move on to a different network since we primarily use our phones for data. Thankfully a nice goon over in the T-Mobile thread introduced me to the Obi which will allow me to setup free voip calling at home with a Google voice number and we will be going with the $30 T-Mobile prepaid plans after all. I'd say about 98% of our phone calls over 10 minutes are made from home and with the Obi I have a feeling we won't ever get close to the 100 minutes and if we do going over a little at 10c/min won't kill us with the money we're saving switching off of Sprint.
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Jul 14, 2013 19:15
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Be warned that while Obi is awesome (I have one and it works great), there is a chance that it will stop working with Google Voice soonish given Google's recent unrepentant destruction of all non-Google+ services. There are other VOIP options the Obi supports, but I believe they are all pay-only.
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Jul 15, 2013 16:49
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Like I said in the other thread that you stopped responding to, just get the Vonage app for your phone and your problems are solved.
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Jul 15, 2013 17:40
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Rooster Brooster posted:Be warned that while Obi is awesome (I have one and it works great), there is a chance that it will stop working with Google Voice soonish given Google's recent unrepentant destruction of all non-Google+ services. There are other VOIP options the Obi supports, but I believe they are all pay-only. Absolutely Obi free is dependant on Google voice, but worse case you'll have to pay something like $36 per year. Last I knew Skype had Skype outbound for $3 per month.
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Jul 15, 2013 18:06
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Theres another VoIP box thats not dependent on google voice, if I recall its called oomla or something
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Jul 15, 2013 19:15
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"d[-.- posted:b" post="417481111"] I do also use the Vonage app on occasion, but since I'd purchased an Obi before trying it out, I don't use it much (at home, anyway).
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Jul 15, 2013 19:16
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To put Sprint in perspective: T-Mobile was better, and they don't even allow sim cards to be sold in Omaha, nor do they apparently allow for area code 402 numbers to be ported in. There were several dead spots but they were out in the SWO sprawl where I don't normally go and were thus less intrusive. Sprint on the other hand will just drop a loving call while pulling off the interstate into midtown. Which is the best time to drop a call if you're getting directions or something. Yes, Sprint is worse than a company that does not even consider itself as being present in the same market region. FAUXTON fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Jul 15, 2013 |
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Jul 15, 2013 19:24
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tater_salad posted:Theres another VoIP box thats not dependent on google voice, if I recall its called oomla or something It's Ooma, and they still charge you taxes/fees, etc. But maybe that's because you get a phone number. I don't really know beyond the name/fees.
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Jul 15, 2013 19:29
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The Entire Universe posted:To put Sprint in perspective: T-Mobile was better, and they don't even allow sim cards to be sold in Omaha, nor do they apparently allow for area code 402 numbers to be ported in. There were several dead spots but they were out in the SWO sprawl where I don't normally go and were thus less intrusive. Sprint on the other hand will just drop a loving call while pulling off the interstate into midtown. Which is the best time to drop a call if you're getting directions or something. Did you eventually settle on anyone? I ended up going with Net10 with no complaints right now. Maybe in a year or so I'll try out the AT&T prepaid if I ever get a LTE phone. For now, HSPA seems more than enough. Have good to great coverage in most of omaha.
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Jul 15, 2013 20:54
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Yeah, its like $2 a month to cover govt 911 fees, all VoIP that have 911 service do this
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Jul 15, 2013 21:04
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TLG James posted:Did you eventually settle on anyone? I ended up going with Net10 with no complaints right now. Maybe in a year or so I'll try out the AT&T prepaid if I ever get a LTE phone. For now, HSPA seems more than enough. Have good to great coverage in most of omaha. Yeah, net10 with ATT. T-mo wouldn't let me port my number in and wanted to assign me a 660 area code one, which is Missouri.
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Jul 15, 2013 21:16
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I'm still rocking AT&T on Straight Talk. Going out of town to Vinton, IA for the week. So far, data has held up fine here in Does Moines and along the way. Let's see how it does it in super west Iowa.  Brought my T-Mobile prepaid SIMs just in case roaming wants to crap out. Also, I don't know how ST is ok with roaming a lot... Tumblr's app takes a fuckton of data when I'm not even using it.
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Jul 16, 2013 01:43
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"d[-.- posted:b" post="417481111"] Sorry about that, I figured since I would be going with the pre-paid option this thread made more sense. I did look into the Vonage app and unless I'm missing something obvious it only allows you to make free calls to other Vonage app users. Although they do have a special limited time offer running where they are giving free calls to any mobile or landline phone in the U.S. up to 3,000 minutes a month which would work wonderfully, is that what you were referring to? I'm curious as to how long that would be good for as it seems at any point they could decide not to run that promotion anymore and we'd be stuck. Have they been offering this for a long time now? Rooster Brooster posted:Be warned that while Obi is awesome (I have one and it works great), there is a chance that it will stop working with Google Voice soonish given Google's recent unrepentant destruction of all non-Google+ services. There are other VOIP options the Obi supports, but I believe they are all pay-only. This is true as Google has been pushing more towards Google hangouts. I guess we could hope that if they do phase out Google Voice that they will merge it into Hangouts and you would still be able to use a voip device to make and receive calls. tater_salad posted:Theres another VoIP box thats not dependent on google voice, if I recall its called oomla or something The Ooma is a solid option and is the best selling voip device on Amazon. The price point is much steeper however at $130 compared to $40 for the basic Obi model.
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Jul 16, 2013 06:17
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Protip posted:This is true as Google has been pushing more towards Google hangouts. I guess we could hope that if they do phase out Google Voice that they will merge it into Hangouts and you would still be able to use a voip device to make and receive calls. This is exactly what Google just did last week.
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Jul 16, 2013 06:33
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BotchedLobotomy posted:Don't switch to ting, the difference between data networks on TMO and sprint is night and day. I cant believe I put up with sprint for so long. Just in case there's still anyone out there who still doubts this, speed tests run from my apartment in Columbus Ohio, Sprint on the left, T-Mo on the right: 
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Jul 16, 2013 07:04
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Does anyone know if the old Straight Talk ATT sims still work? I haven't had an active account in quite some time and was hoping to get my phone set up again. (I have seen a few posts here and there about these sim cards still working, but at least one poster said that have never let their service drop, which is why im asking.) Ive been attempting to get a hold of their customer service to find out, but you cant get an actual person unless you are a current paying customer. Im using an old Atrix 4g and was really considering re-activating my account with them, but since I haven't been able to find out for sure, I don't want to be flushing money down the toilet.
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Jul 16, 2013 07:48
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Protip posted:Sorry about that, I figured since I would be going with the pre-paid option this thread made more sense. I did look into the Vonage app and unless I'm missing something obvious it only allows you to make free calls to other Vonage app users. Although they do have a special limited time offer running where they are giving free calls to any mobile or landline phone in the U.S. up to 3,000 minutes a month which would work wonderfully, is that what you were referring to? I'm curious as to how long that would be good for as it seems at any point they could decide not to run that promotion anymore and we'd be stuck. Have they been offering this for a long time now? Look into it some more because you can call any number by simply bringing up the dialer.
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Jul 16, 2013 13:10
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grimcreaper posted:Does anyone know if the old Straight Talk ATT sims still work? I haven't had an active account in quite some time and was hoping to get my phone set up again. (I have seen a few posts here and there about these sim cards still working, but at least one poster said that have never let their service drop, which is why im asking.) Yes, they still work just fine. I use mine daily.
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Jul 16, 2013 14:18
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I skimmed this page so I'm modifying what this post was going to be. My 2 year Sprint contract is up. It's time to pay less per month and without a contract. I'd like to buy a Galaxy S3 or S4 and get faster Internet speeds either via Sprint's LTE (which is mid-deployment in San Francisco, where I live) or using a different service's towers. I use less than 500MB of data a month (but it's slow as a snail which is my biggest pain point right now,) maybe get 100 minutes of calling a month, but send a couple hundred texts a month. I want to receive calls when I'm not in data range. Originally I was thinking I'd go over to Virgin's $35 a month plan with a Galaxy S3 because Virgin advertises that it uses LTE speeds. However, after skimming this page, I see that T-Mobile may be the better answer as their plan not only fits my usage more aptly, but their normal 3G speeds may surpass Sprint's shoddy network anyway. They don't, however, have the Galaxy S3 or S4 in stock. However, MetroPCS does have the S3 in stock AND they are partnering with T-Mobile and using their network which makes me wonder if I should go MetroPCS instead. Suggestions? Edit: Is there any good way to see if a carrier has "good service" in my area other than just asking around? cellreception.com is full of negative nancies. DaveKap fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Jul 16, 2013 |
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Jul 16, 2013 21:51
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DaveKap posted:I skimmed this page so I'm modifying what this post was going to be. Tmobile is great if they have good service in your area. Their 3g service routinely gives me 10-20mbps here in middle TN.
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Jul 16, 2013 21:56
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Buy an S4 off Craigslist and get a sim card from tmobile for like $1. Activate the $30 100 minute plan online. Port your number in after the account is already set up with a new number from tmobile.
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Jul 16, 2013 22:02
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"d[-.- posted:b" post="417526906"] This is what you want 150%
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Jul 16, 2013 22:07
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If you buy your phone off craigslist, meet at a tmobile store to do the exchange. Have tmobile verify the phone is not on a classic plan or on a payment plan.
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Jul 16, 2013 22:10
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"d[-.- posted:b" post="417526906"] Buy an S3 or S4 off Swappa.com and follow these steps. Remember that Virgin is Sprint service or potentially worse if you ever roamed and the resale value of Virgin phones is nearly 0. Virgin also doesn't have coverage in many areas that Sprint relies on roaming partners so if you drive out to see the grand parents your phone may just not be able to do anything except complain about lack of service until you hit the city limits again. http://sensorly.com/ <- Somewhat non-biased coverage maps. TMo rules.
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Jul 16, 2013 22:16
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Stick100 posted:
Sensorly is absolutely horrible and not at all accurate. It may show you where you will have coverage. But its not accurate at all as far as everywhere you will have coverage.
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Jul 16, 2013 22:21
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I agree with Sensorly being a pile of poo poo. Last time I checked them for AT&T coverage, they claimed it was worse than Sprint in Omaha. If I had known they were lying, I would've gotten rid of my crappy slow Sprint phone sooner than I did. Don't bother with them. The best way to find out if your place has good signal or not is to just try it.
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Jul 16, 2013 22:41
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Don Lapre posted:Sensorly is absolutely horrible and not at all accurate. It may show you where you will have coverage. But its not accurate at all as far as everywhere you will have coverage. DaveKap fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Jul 16, 2013 |
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Jul 16, 2013 23:54
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Don Lapre posted:Sensorly is absolutely horrible and not at all accurate. EDIT: EDIT crap I meant the whole time to be talking about http://opensignal.com/ Both are user generated by opensignal has been extremely accurate for my market for at least 3 carriers. Both are is dependent on users using the app. So it's accuracy is completely dependent on other people. But after using 3 carriers heavily and testing signal strength in a variety of places I've found it to be pretty accurate in my market. Your market will vary of course. Since it's dependent on someone else if you don't see a street lit up that doesn't mean much but if your whole city says one carrier is better than another they are most likely right. As you can expect most areas of the country say Verizon best next is ATT then usually TMo followed by Sprint / MetroPCS ... the rest. The only other alternative is the maps produced by the carriers themselves and that's kind of like asking a used car salesmen how honest they are. Sorry I had confused sensorly with opensignal Stick100 fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Jul 17, 2013 |
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Jul 17, 2013 05:56
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Quick question, I hope: I have a Galaxy Nexus I'm using with T-Mobile's $30 100 min./unlimited text and data plan. It has a full-sized SIM card. If I ask for a nano SIM to use with an iPhone 5S, will the new SIM keep the old plan, or will T-Mobile force me into a different tier?
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Jul 17, 2013 17:10
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I just bought a sim cutter on amazon for like 4 bucks, or you could cut it by hand.
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Jul 17, 2013 17:23
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Maybe I'm crazy but I can't seem to find TMo's 30 dollar plan on their site anymore. Did it just disappear?
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Jul 17, 2013 20:56
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