|
Venkmanologist posted:I've been toying with this idea since they started carrying the Moto X. I have massive debt I'm trying to clear out and looking to minimize costs in all areas of my life, so it seems to be a good fit. 4.4 is slated for early 2014, keep in mind they have a custom rom built in to the phone for their hybrid service, so updates will be a bit behind everyone else unfortunately. Also, you should check Sprint's voice coverage, as it's worlds better than their data.
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2013 07:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 09:24 |
|
|
Well since I left the country for a bit, I didn't renew my Aio plan. And now it says there is a 5 dollar late fee on there. It says pay by January 15th or something. Well I'm not going to be back till Feburary, and I don't plan on trying to renew till then either. I'll have to see what they are going to do.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2013 11:03
|
|
|
I've been on Republic Wireless for almost a month too and it's been great for me. I was on the $10 plan but switched to the $25 plan for a business trip and while Sprint's 3G is pretty slow, it was good enough for quick Facebook checks and such. And no problems with calls or texts at all. I'm pretty happy with it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2013 14:15
|
|
|
Since we're talking about Republic, are you all able to get MMS messages, both pictures and group stuff? I'm on Aio and those used to work but now I get the 'Touch to download' message when my buddy send s something and the message never actually downloads. I can't send any either. No amount of futzing with APN settings has fixed it. Edit: never mind. I redownloaded Sliding Messaging Pro and it works again. Apparently Hangouts doesn't play nice with MMS for me. Venkmanologist fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Dec 21, 2013 |
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2013 17:49
|
|
|
TLG James posted:Well since I left the country for a bit, I didn't renew my Aio plan. And now it says there is a 5 dollar late fee on there. It says pay by January 15th or something. Well I'm not going to be back till Feburary, and I don't plan on trying to renew till then either. I'll have to see what they are going to do. Yeah, AIo has late fees. I don't know if they'll be adding more per month, but I'd at least give them a call (or e-mail if possible).
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2013 18:19
|
|
|
Looks like after 30 days, its a 15 dollar reactivation fee. Ack. Isn't a new line of service only 10 dollars?  Looks like I may have to switch back to net10 or maybe try out gophone.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2013 22:28
|
|
|
Aio is starting to look like a poor choice, between the throttling, higher prices and fees than competitors, and poor customer service reports I've seen around the web.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2013 22:46
|
|
|
blargle posted:Aio is starting to look like a poor choice, between the throttling, higher prices and fees than competitors, and poor customer service reports I've seen around the web. I've had nothing but good customer service when calling them. The big issue with aio stores is that its not att owned but whoever owns the actual building. They just have the rights to sell aio stuff. When you call aio, you most likely get att then. Straight Talk and Net10 are owned by America Movil (ST is partly owned by Walmart) who really doesn't give two shits about you or your service as long as you're paying them money. Aio's cs may not be the absolute best but they are by far better than ST/Net10. The better cs plus being able to stream whatever I want without them possibly cutting me off is enough for me to pay higher prices. I pay on time so fees don't mean much to me. Edit: I also noticed I get a lot better service on AIO than when I was on ST. On ST, I couldn't get any service once I left Omaha going to Kansas and Iowa...I was roaming the entire time. On AIO, I was on AT&T all the way up to a little past Des Moines, IA, then signal all through CR then lost it around Vinton and got it back all the way from Vinton to Chicago. On ST, I would've been roaming the whole way. I streamed Google Play Music the whole way to Chicago and AIO didn't complain, watched some YT videos on the way back, still no complaining. I also noticed just today that I get perfect service at No Frills on 30th where as I would've been without signal the entire time on ST. I also get better MMS/SMS where as MMS never worked on ST and I was told to "reboot my phone or replace it" many times by their CS. Yeah...I can't go back to ST. I would say AIO is a much better choice than ST if you can pay it and avoid the fees. At least until Cricket comes.  We'll see about it then.
ThermoPhysical fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Dec 21, 2013 |
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2013 23:28
|
|
|
Incoming AIO WIRELESS tip! I've been using a Nexus 5 on Aio and using Hangouts for SMS, which was fine until people kept trying to send me an kind of MMS message (pictures or group messages). I switched back to using Sliding Messaging Pro, which fixed my MMS problems. When you install Sliding Messaging Pro, it asks you to select the proper APN for your carrier. You pick from a list of preconfigured options, or just pick 'Auto Select' which is what I did. Also, you can specify the correct APN specifically for MMS. I saw Sliding Messaging was using a different MMSC and MMS proxy than the APN in the phone's 'Settings' menu. So I changed the phone's APN settings to the one's used by Sliding Messaging. MMSC = hhtp://mmsc.cingular.com MMS proxy = wireless.cingular.com Save that. I can now finally send and receive MMS messages using Hangouts on Aio Wireless. I hope this helps someone because it was driving me crazy.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2013 21:02
|
|
|
I have used tethering a bit on Aio without issue. By a bit I mean syncing my Paperwhite and seeing if it worked while browsing with my girlfriend's phone. Not sure if they'd have problems with using something like a PC or a tablet.
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2013 03:52
|
|
|
ThermoPhysical posted:I've had nothing but good customer service when calling them. The big issue with aio stores is that its not att owned but whoever owns the actual building. They just have the rights to sell aio stuff. When you call aio, you most likely get att then. It is definitely not AT&T that you get when you call. There are no AIO stores around here so all of my customer service has been on the phone and it is absolutely some cut rate outsourced support. It's pretty bad. Before AIO I'd been an AT&T customer for probably 12 or 13 years and the phone support I got as an actual AT&T customer was miles above what AIO was.
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2013 15:25
|
|
|
clockworx posted:Does anyone know of a plan that meets this criteria (US)? After research I found a couple options for my scenario from before: Jolt Mobile - AT&T MVNO for $30/mo Family Mobile - Walmart/Tmobile prepaid venture. $30/mo or $20 if she qualifies for income-based discount Anyone here been on either of these? EDIT: Scratch the above, apparently Jolt is an MVNO under Airvoice and Airvoice offers the same plan. So...probably going to end up with Airvoice. clockworx fucked around with this message at 19:00 on Dec 23, 2013 |
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2013 15:38
|
|
|
BonoMan posted:It is definitely not AT&T that you get when you call. There are no AIO stores around here so all of my customer service has been on the phone and it is absolutely some cut rate outsourced support. It's pretty bad. Before AIO I'd been an AT&T customer for probably 12 or 13 years and the phone support I got as an actual AT&T customer was miles above what AIO was. AIO support is miles above what ST/Net10 is so...yeah. I'm fine with this.
|
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2013 18:13
|
|
|
I've been on T-Mobile's $30 plan since about March using a Nexus 4. Haven't had any problems until today when an MMS (group text) started resulting in error texts from 500 saying "Your mms message could not be delivered due to insufficient funds or MMS blocking." A picture message sent to a friend went through fine, so it seems to be group text specific. Also, I'm receiving messages from my friends in the same group text. They all have iPhones, not sure what providers they're with, but I doubt that's the problem. Any idea what the problem could be? nerdpony fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Dec 23, 2013 |
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2013 22:00
|
|
|
Just got done porting my number to Aio and got set up on a Nexus 5. I'll post a report once I use it for a few weeks. (I'm in Central NJ)
|
|
#
?
Dec 24, 2013 21:00
|
|
|
So, my mother was given an iPhone 4S AT&T (locked) and would like to use it on StraightTalk (ST). She has since purchased an AT&T SIM for ST but we've been unable to get the iPhone activated. I told her it needs to be unlocked but others are saying that it's not necessary for it to be unlocked if she has the ST AT&T SIM, which she does. Can someone give me an informed explanation regarding ST and locked iPhones? e: the iPhone is currently on iOS 5 or 6, if that matters for some reason. spongeworthy fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Dec 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Dec 26, 2013 03:29
|
|
|
Any experiences with H2O Wireless? (checked the OP, but it's a bit.. dated) Their "new" $60 unlimited everything plan sounds appealing, but I have no idea what their customer service is like. Also trying to figure out if they offer LTE (or if LTE is only for their wireless hotspots) and if short SMS codes are supported. They seem to be one of the only AT&T MVNOs that offer "unlimited" data.
|
|
#
?
Dec 26, 2013 03:58
|
|
|
More info: I have updated the phone to iOS 7.0.4 and we have a working ST AT&T SIM in the phone. It now shows 5 bars and the 4G symbol, yet we cannot activate the phone. It's not blacklisted according to AT&T. iTunes reports "Your request couldn't be processed. We’re sorry, but there was an error processing your request. Please try again later." And this is a photo of the phone:   Any ideas? spongeworthy posted:So, my mother was given an iPhone 4S AT&T (locked) and would like to use it on StraightTalk (ST). She has since purchased an AT&T SIM for ST but we've been unable to get the iPhone activated. I told her it needs to be unlocked but others are saying that it's not necessary for it to be unlocked if she has the ST AT&T SIM, which she does. spongeworthy fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Dec 27, 2013 |
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2013 21:22
|
|
|
spongeworthy posted:More info: I have updated the phone to iOS 7.0.4 and we have a working ST AT&T SIM in the phone. It now shows 5 bars and the 4G symbol, yet we cannot activate the phone. It's not blacklisted according to AT&T. Ask in the iPhone thread
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2013 04:30
|
|
|
Does anybody have straight talk apn settings that allow mms being received? My wife's moto g can send mms , but never receives them. We got the att sim, and tried the settings that st provides in their website with no luck. Halp.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 06:29
|
|
|
walumachoncha posted:Does anybody have straight talk apn settings that allow mms being received? My wife's moto g can send mms , but never receives them. We got the att sim, and tried the settings that st provides in their website with no luck. Halp. Heres the setting I use, no issues. http://i.imgur.com/Qeid1MJ.png + http://i.imgur.com/Az3zSz5.png
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 06:35
|
|
|
walumachoncha posted:Does anybody have straight talk apn settings that allow mms being received? My wife's moto g can send mms , but never receives them. We got the att sim, and tried the settings that st provides in their website with no luck. Halp. My wife and I (both on N5s on ST with AT&T sims) could not receive MMS for the first month. We could send with no issues at all, but sending was a no go. We read online that it works when your second month starts, and sure enough, it worked for us on the very first day of the second billing month. I have no idea why they do that... But it seems to be A 'thing' with them. I'm using the same APN setting as the guy posted after you.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 06:53
|
|
|
That's pretty strange, mine started working on day one with the settings I posted. There are a few more settings in there than what's listed on ST's site that made the difference for me. Had the same issue until they were added in. Authentication Type and APN Type mostly.
poxin fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Jan 1, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 07:00
|
|
|
What is the cheapest way for me to try out straight talk for a month? I just need a phone I can install Google Voice on so I can make and receive calls using my google voice number. I want to test it vs Sprint before eating my ETF and fully switching. I have a Sprint Evo4g but I do not think that will work according to my googling. I am willing to buy a piece of crap phone if I can install Google Voice. If after a month I decide to switch I will probably invest in a nice phone then. My reason for switching is voice call reception on Sprint. I am much less concerned with data speeds but I can no longer have dropped calls or unclear reception. I have to have a quality voice signal. Can I put Google Voice on this? http://www.walmart.com/ip/Straight-...ner=lw9MynSeamY Thanks for the great information in this thread by the way. edit It says 2.5gb of full speed and then 2g speeds on the straight talk website. How slow is 2G? I only thought it went down to 3g. Ribsauce fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Jan 1, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 18:00
|
|
|
Ribsauce posted:What is the cheapest way for me to try out straight talk for a month? I just need a phone I can install Google Voice on so I can make and receive calls using my google voice number. I want to test it vs Sprint before eating my ETF and fully switching. I have a Sprint Evo4g but I do not think that will work according to my googling. I am willing to buy a piece of crap phone if I can install Google Voice. If after a month I decide to switch I will probably invest in a nice phone then. That phone runs the Symbian OS and Google does not have a Voice app for that OS. If you want to use the Google Voice app you will need to get an Android or iOS device. Regarding throttled speeds, according to some people on Howard Forums the "2G" throttle speed for Straight Talk is 10 kbps (yes, ten kilobits per second) which is actually way lower than the normal 2G data speed for 2G GSM/EDGE (which is up to 236 kbps theoretically with mid-high 100s possible in the real world). Also keep in mind that ST AT&T has a total ban on tethering and streaming so it's actually somewhat hard to reach that monthly cap.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 19:29
|
|
|
Ribsauce posted:What is the cheapest way for me to try out straight talk for a month? I just need a phone I can install Google Voice on so I can make and receive calls using my google voice number. I want to test it vs Sprint before eating my ETF and fully switching. I have a Sprint Evo4g but I do not think that will work according to my googling. I am willing to buy a piece of crap phone if I can install Google Voice. If after a month I decide to switch I will probably invest in a nice phone then. You can use Google voice with any dumb phone, you just have to go through the process of calling your own Google voice number and then making the outgoing call from there. You'll have to look online how to set that stuff up, but I did it once a few years ago and it wasn't a problem. So sure, you can get that Nokia and try it out but not with the app. Then again straight talk even has free phones on their website when purchased with a $30 card and Sim. You just need to make sure it's an att version. Even easier would be to find a friend with att service. Where are you located?
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 19:40
|
|
|
Mr.Radar posted:Also keep in mind that ST AT&T has a total ban on tethering and streaming so it's actually somewhat hard to reach that monthly cap. What is streaming in relation to a cell phone? SB35 posted:
I am in Raleigh, NC and I do not know anyone with ATT&T. Everyone is Verizon or Sprint.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 20:13
|
|
|
Ribsauce posted:What is streaming in relation to a cell phone? YouTube, Netflix, I think Pandora and Spotify and the like.
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 20:39
|
|
|
Wow, that sucks. I am crossing them off then. If you stay under the 2 gig limit why do they give a crap if you listen to the radio? edit the terms only mention "uploading, downloading or streaming of uninterrupted continuous video; (" as prohibited, so it sounds like a quick 5 minute youtube video is fine. Under that it says "Examples of data that will count as part of your data usage are: sending or receiving email, documents, pictures or other files; multimedia streaming (music and video); " so I guess it is fine to stream audio. Ribsauce fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Jan 1, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 21:18
|
|
|
I'm not sure if this has been answered before, but here goes: My mom is wanting to get her first smartphone. We are both fed up with Verizon jacking our plan up more and more. I have recommended T-Mobile for her. A few of the reasons being she wants to keep the same phone and plan for as many years as she can. She doesn't use many minutes, and I'm sure won't use too much data either. I suggested the $30/mo T-Mobile plan through Wal-Mart. We are down to 2 phones: S3 or iPhone 5c/s. I have an S3 through Virgin mobile. She likes my phone a lot plus she would feel more comfortable navigating the phone since I already know how it works and can show her. However, she loves her Apple things (MacBook, ipod, etc) and would be able to easily sync all those things together. The cost of the iphone was initially ruled out, until I saw on the apple website that there is a special financing deal for the 5c/s for T-Mobile only: up to 24 mo no interest. Good credit isn't an issue at all. My questions: 1) Which phone would have a better life span? If that's even possible to know? 2) If she gets the iphone, which will come with a T-Mobile sim, will it be easy/possible to go to Wal-Mart and activate it for the $30/mo plan? If you goons have any other phone or carrier suggestions for me to consider, I would appreciate it!
|
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 23:47
|
|
|
A Sleepy Budgie posted:I saw on the apple website that there is a special financing deal for the 5c/s for T-Mobile only: up to 24 mo no interest. Good credit isn't an issue at all. Was this a deal through Apple? Because that sounds like the way T-Mobile does their phones on post-paid plans (you make a down payment and pay off the balance over 24 months, interest free, assuming your credit isn't pockmarked with chargeoffs and sent to collections) which is definitely NOT available for prepaid plans. As far as T-Mobile goes, my wife is coming up on the end of her first month of service on the $30/100 minutes/unlimited text & data plan. We found she uses more voice that we initially anticipated (she's at 97 minutes with 8 days left on the billing cycle), and that's counting using vonage extensions for most of her outgoing calls. OTOH apparently they will star charging you .10/minute after your allotted 100 is up if you have a balance sitting on your account, which isn't terrible. Service has been about equal with my Verizon phone, to the point of I wonder if they lease tower space from Verizon as signal strength is typically the same on both phones, but of course YMMV unless you also happen to live in NE Ohio... Geoj fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Jan 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 1, 2014 23:59
|
|
|
A Sleepy Budgie posted:I'm not sure if this has been answered before, but here goes: T-Mobile financing is only available with post-paid plans. The $30 plan is pre-paid so you'd have to purchase the phone outright or put it in a credit card. Between the iPhone 5c/s and the Galaxy S3 the iPhone will have better longevity both because they are current-gen products while the S3 is previous-gen and also because Apple provides much better support for upgrading older hardware than any Android manufacturer (Google and Motorola are the only ones that come close). Is there any reason why you're not looking at the current thread favorites, the Moto G ($179/$199 8/16GB no-contract), Moto X (now only $399/$449 16/32GB no-contract direct from Motorola), and Nexus 5 ($349/$399 16/32GB no contract)? The G is available no-contract for less than 1/2 as much as the S3 through T-Mobile for pretty comparable specs (the biggest drawbacks being a mediocre camera and no LTE, but T-Mobile's 3G HSPA is pretty fast) and the X and Nexus 5 are both current-gen flagship phones for about the same as the S3 from T-Mobile. All of these also have 18-month Android OS upgrade guarantees which the S3 does not.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 00:21
|
|
|
Geoj posted:Service has been about equal with my Verizon phone, to the point of I wonder if they lease tower space from Verizon as signal strength is typically the same on both phones, but of course YMMV unless you also happen to live in NE Ohio... They use completely different technologies, so no. Also, your question implies that the towers are the reason Verizon has good service. The real reason is the frequencies they use (700Mhz spectrum has very good penetration and range but gives up the ability to handle lots of people using it, compared to higher frequency spectrum). d[-.-]b fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jan 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 01:15
|
|
|
"d[-.- posted:b" post="423881908"] I meant that as in "they literally rent physical tower space to put their own hardware on." "d[-.- posted:b" post="423881908"] Thanks, I really needed a casual observation to be dissected to the nth degree. My assumption is based on the fact that practically everywhere I go our phones have literally identical signal strength. Geoj fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Jan 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 01:18
|
|
|
Geoj posted:I meant that as in "they literally rent physical tower space to put their own hardware on." Do you both have the exact same phone? And you're looking at the dBm rating? Otherwise, that's hard to say. Also, if Verizon and T-Mobile shared the same tower, because they use different frequencies, it would be almost impossible for you to get the same dBm reading on phones from each carrier. I'm not sure what you're basing your assumption on.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 02:49
|
|
|
"d[-.- posted:b" post="423881908"] This is not how RF communication works, 20 MHz of bandwidth is 20 MHz of bandwidth whether you're using 755-775 MHz or 1755-1775 MHz. Using identical technology the capacity is identical with all other factors controlled. "d[-.- posted:b" post="423885345"] This is wrong, I guess you're assuming both carriers' equipment are broadcasting at the same exact power output which you can't know/they are probably not. The "quality" of your mobile connection is a complicated interaction of many factors, but no need to provide incorrect sperginess about RF poo poo that's incorrect Asymmetric POSTer fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Jan 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 03:10
|
|
|
"d[-.- posted:b" post="423885345"] Geoj posted:Thanks, I really needed a casual observation to be dissected to the nth degree. It was a casual observation in response to someone asking questions about a service provider. As in, not to be taken as literal fact - just "curiously, our phones always have the same signal strength, its almost like verizon and tmobile share towers!" Maybe stop derailing the thread with your  LOL LOOK AT HOW STUPID YOU ARE bullshit?
Geoj fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Jan 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 03:32
|
|
|
A Sleepy Budgie posted:My questions: As much of an Android fan as I am, I still say she should probably stick with the Apple ecosystem if she's already using it. It should be simpler to tie in all the iTunes and photo stuff with their other products. The 5c is essentially the 5 in a colorful plastic case. The 5s isn't much of a spec bump from the 5, but has the nifty thumb print unlock system and a redesigned camera/flash. The 5s will last a little longer as it's their newest product, but the 5c is still capable and cheaper. Though the plastic shell might turn her off.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 04:16
|
|
|
mishaq posted:This is not how RF communication works, 20 MHz of bandwidth is 20 MHz of bandwidth whether you're using 755-775 MHz or 1755-1775 MHz. Using identical technology the capacity is identical with all other factors controlled. Are you sure about that? Everything I've read says that higher frequencies = more capacity due to the increased number of towers to get the same level of service. mishaq posted:This is wrong, I guess you're assuming both carriers' equipment are broadcasting at the same exact power output which you can't know/they are probably not.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 04:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 09:24 |
|
|
"d[-.- posted:b" post="423889885"] There is not a linear correlation between what spectrum band you're using and the number of towers you deploy in the real world. For a fixed capacity of users uniformly, yes you would need more towers if you're using higher frequencies compared to lower ones, but if I'm using lower frequencies I can increase capacity by deploying towers more densely by lowering the power output of the ones I put closer together, like in a denser urban area. "d[-.- posted:b" post="423889885"] No one is reading power readings off their phone in field test mode except maybe you, most people are probably just going by the bars on the display and it's entirely possible in a given town t-mobile and Verizon could provide similar "reception" even though they're using different frequency bands. When you work in telecom engineering for a few years feel free to lecture people in Inspect Your Gadgets about power levels on their phones, until then perhaps stop giving out both irrelevant and incorrect information.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2014 05:31
|
|