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I'm not sure how that works in another country but postpaid wifi calling doesn't use minutes while on prepaid it does. I'd assume though that since it's going over the Internet they wouldn't have to charge roaming rates at all since they don't have to pay the local telco.
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Jan 18, 2014 20:26
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Postpaid calls using wifi calling while in other countries works fine and you aren't charged extra.
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Jan 18, 2014 20:48
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Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:My new Samsung Galaxy S4 has wifi calling on it. I'm not sure if this is a T-Mobile thing but it might be. Anyways, if we go travel, and I use wifi calling from a hostel/hotel, is that charged per minute in a foreign country, or is that only if I call using cell towers? Wifi calling is billed as regular minutes from the US, so if you are calling/texting US numbers it's like you're at home. If you call a local-to-the-country-you're-in number it's billed as international. I rented a 4G hotspot from xcom global when I went to europe so I bounced off that for calls and data on the cheap(ish).
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Jan 18, 2014 20:50
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I am thinking of jumping ship from sprint and have a question, I am in the military but will be transferring overseas in August, if I do the zero down on a phone and suspend my account for the 2 years I will be gone, does that suspend the phone payment or will it have to be paid off?
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Jan 19, 2014 07:33
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Nihiliste posted:That should've been the most obvious answer, now that I think about it! Visual Voicemail and the My Account app work perfectly fine on Android 4.4, at least on my Nexus 4. I don't think that is what's causing you problems.
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Jan 19, 2014 19:19
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Gom Jabbar posted:I am thinking of jumping ship from sprint and have a question, I am in the military but will be transferring overseas in August, if I do the zero down on a phone and suspend my account for the 2 years I will be gone, does that suspend the phone payment or will it have to be paid off? http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-3541 military suspensions continue to bill the installment plan.
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Jan 19, 2014 20:18
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I did the math and it seems that I'll save money switching to the $30/month plan even after buying a cheap phone and paying my AT&T ETF. (They won't unlock my iPhone 5 until I've either finished my current contract or paid out the account, which seems fair enough.) However, the cheap phone I'm getting uses a micro sim and my iPhone uses a nano sim. I was able to order a nano sim starter and a micro sim starter from T-Mobile, so I know I'll be OK setting up the cheap phone and porting my number over. The thing I'm not sure about is will I then be able to switch service from the micro sim to the nano sim once I get my iPhone unlocked, or would I be better off getting an adapter for the nano sim and using that from the start?
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Jan 20, 2014 14:37
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CaptainCaveman posted:I did the math and it seems that I'll save money switching to the $30/month plan even after buying a cheap phone and paying my AT&T ETF. (They won't unlock my iPhone 5 until I've either finished my current contract or paid out the account, which seems fair enough.) However, the cheap phone I'm getting uses a micro sim and my iPhone uses a nano sim. I was able to order a nano sim starter and a micro sim starter from T-Mobile, so I know I'll be OK setting up the cheap phone and porting my number over. The thing I'm not sure about is will I then be able to switch service from the micro sim to the nano sim once I get my iPhone unlocked, or would I be better off getting an adapter for the nano sim and using that from the start? You could also take the route I'm going: go to an AT&T store and switch your account to a prepaid gophone. It will end your contract and you'll get a bill for your etf. Pay it and you can unlock. Then port from the gophone to tmobile. This allows you to use your current phone with at&t while waiting for the unlock. It took 15 minutes to convert both of my lines at the store. You need new sims (free) so going to a corporate store is mandatory. You can pick the $40 smartphone plan with 200mb of data to get you through.
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Jan 20, 2014 14:59
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How do you know which stores are corporate? There doesn't seem to be any indication on the store locator on the website.
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Jan 20, 2014 18:36
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Theris posted:How do you know which stores are corporate? There doesn't seem to be any indication on the store locator on the website. https://www.att.com/maps/store-locator.html In the results, right above the address, it will say "Authorized retailer" or "Company store" Edit: on the desktop site anyway
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Jan 20, 2014 22:07
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This coming weekend, I'm going to switch to T-Mo from a grandfathered unlimited data plan on Verizon. The ETF credit is what is making this worthwhile for me. My issue is that I was really hoping to get a Moto X, but it seems that's no longer offered through them. I guess I'd have to get a different phone and flip it? How would that work with the Jump! program then? Wouldn't I have to turn in the phone I originally bought?
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Jan 20, 2014 23:31
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ohgodwhat posted:This coming weekend, I'm going to switch to T-Mo from a grandfathered unlimited data plan on Verizon. The ETF credit is what is making this worthwhile for me. if you want to flip a bought phone to pay for the X, then you can't do Jump!
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Jan 20, 2014 23:59
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Transitioned my parents and one of my in-laws from at&t to my family t-mo plan today. We brought in an iphone5 16gb, a verizon galaxy nexus, and a galaxy note 1. Between the trade-ins and the zero-downs, we walked out of there with a note 3, 2 iphone 5s 16gb, a s-view flip cover for the note 3, and a $12 credit to my account. Not bad at all, I'd say. Hopefully these other carriers run scared and shape up a bit.
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Jan 21, 2014 00:23
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Brock Landers posted:You could also take the route I'm going: go to an AT&T store and switch your account to a prepaid gophone. It will end your contract and you'll get a bill for your etf. Pay it and you can unlock. Then port from the gophone to tmobile. This allows you to use your current phone with at&t while waiting for the unlock. It took 15 minutes to convert both of my lines at the store. You need new sims (free) so going to a corporate store is mandatory. You can pick the $40 smartphone plan with 200mb of data to get you through. Huh, I sort of wish I'd asked a day ago, that sounds like a good plan. However the phone I ordered already shipped and for the price it'll probably be good to keep on hand as a backup if nothing else.
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Jan 21, 2014 00:33
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Finally bit the bullet and purchased a Nexus 5 and prepaid SIM card and am now on the $30/mo 100 minutes + unlimited text/data plan. I still have my S4 with Sprint (which I'll probably keep for two months to compare coverage), so I haven't been using the phone as my primary (nor does anyone have my new phone number). But I have a question for those using Talkatone (or equivalent): are you only giving out your Google Voice number? How does this work for incoming calls? If someone calls and I am not on a strong wireless signal, I imagine weak 3G/4G/LTE will make the call sound terrible. Do you have to call them back using your T-Mobile number?
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Jan 21, 2014 08:56
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MrCodeDude posted:How does this work for incoming calls? If someone calls and I am not on a strong wireless signal, I imagine weak 3G/4G/LTE will make the call sound terrible. Do you have to call them back using your T-Mobile number?
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Jan 21, 2014 15:28
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Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:It's just a regular call. When they call your GV number, it goes to Google's switch and Google forwards the call to your cell number. When you "call out" using your GV number, you're actually calling Google and they're forwarding the call to the number you want. Both ways still use up minutes. Oh, my mistake, I never installed GV on my phone, just Talkatone. So use GV when I don't have data, use Talkatone for when I do. And I guess just use Talkatone as my default SMS/MMS client.
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Jan 21, 2014 22:54
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MrCodeDude posted:Oh, my mistake, I never installed GV on my phone, just Talkatone. So use GV when I don't have data, use Talkatone for when I do.
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Jan 21, 2014 23:03
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In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, it appears that T-Mobile is now targeting the check-cashing industry for the "uncarrier" experience. Today they announced they are launching a prepaid Visa debit card with very low fees for T-Mobile subscribers and generally low fees for non-subscribers, including free check deposits via smartphone for both. This card looks like it's one of the best prepaid debit cards around and will be a real boon for people who can't get a regular bank account for one reason or another, with estimated savings of up to $1500 in fees compared to using check cashing services.
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Jan 22, 2014 17:36
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Mr.Radar posted:In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, it appears that T-Mobile is now targeting the check-cashing industry for the "uncarrier" experience. Today they announced they are launching a prepaid Visa debit card with very low fees for T-Mobile subscribers and generally low fees for non-subscribers, including free check deposits via smartphone for both. This card looks like it's one of the best prepaid debit cards around and will be a real boon for people who can't get a regular bank account for one reason or another, with estimated savings of up to $1500 in fees compared to using check cashing services. um, ok I guess but sounds kinda cheesy for a carrier to be doing something so low brow as check cashing.
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Jan 22, 2014 18:12
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Hope they have a good compliance organization.
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Jan 22, 2014 18:42
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r0ck0 posted:um, ok I guess but sounds kinda cheesy for a carrier to be doing something so low brow as check cashing. Yeah, looked it over and the rates for subscribers aren't awful, it's just weird. I can't see much appeal for anyone with access to a credit union. This plus the 0% loan purchase plan says they want to dominate the bankless / cash-only market. Kinda funny in a depressing way that they'll probably take a chunk of Walmart employees and customers away from that ripoff prepaid card service.
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Jan 22, 2014 18:54
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Mr.Radar posted:In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, it appears that T-Mobile is now targeting the check-cashing industry for the "uncarrier" experience. Today they announced they are launching a prepaid Visa debit card with very low fees for T-Mobile subscribers and generally low fees for non-subscribers, including free check deposits via smartphone for both. This card looks like it's one of the best prepaid debit cards around and will be a real boon for people who can't get a regular bank account for one reason or another, with estimated savings of up to $1500 in fees compared to using check cashing services. I suspect they want to launch a service much like M-pesa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa But you need a card and check depositing infrastructure first because that's the primary I/O for the unbanked.
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Jan 22, 2014 19:06
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The Poorcarrier.
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Jan 22, 2014 19:16
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I have the $30 T-Mobile plan and since it has no data roaming I sometimes lose data (but not voice) when I'm traveling. Is there a way to temporarily add roaming? Would it be better to use a prepaid AT&T SIM? I have a Nexus 5 and I use Google Voice so it doesn't matter if the number changes. What's the best option?
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Jan 22, 2014 21:15
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Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:I have the $30 T-Mobile plan and since it has no data roaming I sometimes lose data (but not voice) when I'm traveling. Is there a way to temporarily add roaming? Would it be better to use a prepaid AT&T SIM? I have a Nexus 5 and I use Google Voice so it doesn't matter if the number changes. Since AT&T has much better coverage in general, I'd keep a gophone sim around for traveling. Keep it on a pay per use plan and add a few bucks to it every 60 days so it doesn't expire. When you travel, call 611 and add a data plan which will get you 30 days of service.
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Jan 22, 2014 23:49
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Brock Landers posted:There is no "roaming" you can just add to any tmobile plans that I know of.
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Jan 23, 2014 00:06
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Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:You mean this? It sucks that I have to get unlimited voice/text just to get a decent amount of data. Yea if you want smartphone data you need the $40 or $60 plans. They are good for 30 days though. I'm not aware of any reasonably priced att mvno that has pay per use smartphone data. Some like h2o come close but not on 4g or lte. Edit: Straighttalk is $45 but there are all kinds of rumors about throttling or cutoffs if you use more than a certain amount of your 2.5 gigs in a short period. Brock Landers fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 01:40
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Brock Landers posted:Edit: Straighttalk is $45 but there are all kinds of rumors about throttling or cutoffs if you use more than a certain amount of your 2.5 gigs in a short period.
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Jan 23, 2014 02:17
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Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:It's only when I go on vacation and I've got better things to do than dick off on my phone, so that's not too big of a deal. Is that something I can get ahead of time and just activate whenever or do I have to sign up each time? You can buy the sims at target or other stores and activate them over the phone. Depending on how much money you put in the account, it will expire a different time. If you put $100 in the balance is good for a year. AT&T has a chart showing that.
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Jan 23, 2014 03:00
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After finding out about the ETF thing, t-mobile pretty much won my heart as it provides more than I get from Verizon for less money, and without all the contract bullshit, which has always been a thing I hate. Also the network is much more robust than last time I looked at it, which is important because I need my service to be rock solid reliable (I drive ambulances and need to be able to call and be called by dispatch). However, I used the tool here and it tells me my number is not able to be ported. I have a Verizon phone number. The tool says a small number of numbers can't be moved usually due to not having a contract, but I don't think "all Verizon customers" would count as a "small number." Is it because I still have this number on a VZW contract, and this tool is only for online transfers? Basically the only thing that would keep me from moving to TMobile tomorrow morning is if I would have to leave my current phone number. Even that probably won't stop me, but I'd really like it if I didn't have to go through all that. Edit: the more I'm reading about it it seems likely that it's just because that number is still on a contract. When I go to the corporate store in person, will they be able to make this entire process suffering-free and easy for me by taking care of contacting Verizon and so on, or do I need to come up with a convoluted plan on my own for getting my ETF bill, liberating my number, getting it all transferred, and so on without any interruption in service? Paramemetic fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 04:11
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Paramemetic posted:After finding out about the ETF thing, t-mobile pretty much won my heart as it provides more than I get from Verizon for less money, and without all the contract bullshit, which has always been a thing I hate. Also the network is much more robust than last time I looked at it, which is important because I need my service to be rock solid reliable (I drive ambulances and need to be able to call and be called by dispatch). Look a couple pages back and you'll see the post I made about switching from Verizon. The long and short is that T-Mobile gave me a temporary number and told me it could take up to 24 hours for my old one to transfer. I received a text message about 150 minutes after I left the T-Mobile store saying the transfer went through.
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Jan 23, 2014 04:39
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Sprint user here. Have been with them for the past 5 years, was awesome when we had a huge family plan going and were each paying $20/mo, but now that more people have dropped off we're paying $40-$45/mo and we just have dumb flip phones. It's close enough to a smart phone cost that I think it's worth switching. So I am guessing I can't take advantage of any phone trade in ETF deal going on. Anyway, after looking over the plans I had some questions I can't find answers to. Me and my wife want to get two iPhones. -Is the $30 "nerd plan" with 100 minutes include anything such as Nights and Weekend minutes that are free? Or is that the WiFi calling which is how you expect to get by? I Use 400 minutes a month in total so I'm questioning if this is even practical. I'm guessing we'd have to do two individual plans for this too. -If we go with the "Simple Choice" plans with two lines, can we change the plans in any combination whenever? For example, if 500MB is not enough for me, but it is for the wife, can I upgrade just my phone to a 2.5GB plan and keep hers at 500MB? It seems kind of dumb to start off with a higher end plan if the only limit is data speeds, and I figure we could at least see if the lower one works for us at first to save money. -How slow is the limited speeds beyond the data cap? -I actually have an old AT&T iPhone 4 (GSM A1332). Can I use this phone on T-Mobile? It was my brother's old phone that he gave to me when he upgraded a couple years back, in perfect working condition. I have no idea if I even need to do anything to unlock it from AT&T. I'm guessing I just don't get 4G speeds with it. Or is it only 2G Edge? The only reason I've been able to go this long without a smart phone is because of my iPhone and a Freedompop 4G hotspot. I'm feeling ready to do this. Astro7x fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 05:09
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Astro7x posted:Sprint user here. Have been with them for the past 5 years, was awesome when we had a huge family plan going and were each paying $20/mo, but now that more people have dropped off we're paying $40-$45/mo and we just have dumb flip phones. It's close enough to a smart phone cost that I think it's worth switching. So I am guessing I can't take advantage of any phone trade in ETF deal going on. Anyway, after looking over the plans I had some questions I can't find answers to. It's called the "nerd plan" because you don't talk to anybody. No free nights/weekends wifi calling counts against them Yes, each line can have a different bucket of data. The 'slow' internet used to be just 2G (~128K, enogh to check email or gchat but that's about it) In most areas you can now use ATT phones with 3G data if they're unlocked, but 1900mhz coverage is still not as good as 1700. Here are cities where it should work: http://support.t-mobile.com/community/coverage/blog/2013/12/17/network-modernization-update
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Jan 23, 2014 05:19
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Astro7x posted:-Is the $30 "nerd plan" with 100 minutes include anything such as Nights and Weekend minutes that are free? Or is that the WiFi calling which is how you expect to get by? I Use 400 minutes a month in total so I'm questioning if this is even practical. I'm guessing we'd have to do two individual plans for this too. If you're going to use 400 minutes/month, then the Nerd plan will actually run you $60/month for the 5GB data + unlimited texts + 400 minutes (300 extra at 0.10c/minute). Your probably better off going with the Simple Choice plans in this case. You can switch around the amount of data on each line at any time and they will usually back-date the change if you happen to go over one month (to avoid overage costs). That iPhone 4 will work on T-Mobile. You will have service in all T-Mobile areas. However, the fastest data you will get is HSPA+ (no LTE) and you will be on EDGE a lot more frequently than you'd like, as lots of their towers are still on the 1700Mhz band. In my city, even though all of the towers run LTE with a newer iPhone, with a 4S I'd say it's about 50/50 between EDGE and HSPA+ (randomly dispersed). So yeah, if you plan on any regular streaming/data heavy usage, I'd suggest picking up a 5, 5C, or 5S. You can probably sell the 4S to cover most of the down payment cost on one of the Simple Choice plans.
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Jan 23, 2014 05:38
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Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:It's only when I go on vacation and I've got better things to do than dick off on my phone, so that's not too big of a deal. Is that something I can get ahead of time and just activate whenever or do I have to sign up each time? If you just need data look at the ATT tablet plans ($30 for 3Gb) and just use it data only. Nexus 7 with LTE or something like that?
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Jan 23, 2014 05:44
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tonic posted:If you're going to use 400 minutes/month, then the Nerd plan will actually run you $60/month for the 5GB data + unlimited texts + 400 minutes (300 extra at 0.10c/minute). All very useful info! Glad to know that I can simply change plans. Though what overages can you possibly have with the Simple Choice plan if it's unlimited Text/Talk/Web? It seems like the only difference is the cap until your internet data speed is capped. If it's just pro-rating the new plan then I see no reason to start out on a higher plan. I might actually try using my iPhone 4 then. I live in Chicago so hopefully its enough of a modernized market to work well. Maybe it can last me until the inevitable iPhone 6 comes out.I guess if worst comes to worse with data speed I always have my Freedompop 1GB 4G hotspot that I can use. It's decent, just that I run into a lot of deadzones since it uses the Sprint 4G network. Astro7x fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 06:22
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r0ck0 posted:um, ok I guess but sounds kinda cheesy for a carrier to be doing something so low brow as check cashing. It's not targeted at the stereotypical check cashing crowd. I think this is targeted squarely at millennials - a large portion of whom don't have bank accounts. Last report I read was something like 25% of millennials don't have bank accts.
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Jan 23, 2014 06:37
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Astro7x posted:Glad to know that I can simply change plans. Though what overages can you possibly have with the Simple Choice plan if it's unlimited Text/Talk/Web? It seems like the only difference is the cap until your internet data speed is capped. If it's just pro-rating the new plan then I see no reason to start out on a higher plan. poo poo, you're right, I forget they're all unlimited now. Their 128kbps cap after you hit your cap is pretty much unusable for anything other than email, though it makes sense to start low and then upgrade. Especially since your iPhone 4 will be on EDGE a bunch anyway, though I swear EDGE is way faster than their 128kbps cap. But yeah, while I'm no longer on Tmobile, both their HSPA+ and LTE networks are the fastest I've ever used (Northern Cali). Coverage is another question, but you live in a huge metro area so it shouldn't be an issue. tonic fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Jan 23, 2014 |
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Jan 23, 2014 08:07
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Something kinda cool I've run into, although this varies by town obviously, is that for all the warnings I had about T-Mo's signal being rear end here in my city I have yet to find anyplace where it isn't significantly better than Verizon. I ran some errands last night in places that were total dead zones for Verizon and had full bars. Places with a decent signal for VZW had an extra bar at least, and where LTE wasn't available the HSPA+ network was still better than Verizon's strong 3G/weak 4G. No regrets at all on that front. Only gripe I have is now that I have unlimited SMS the only texts I've received are from folks trying to get me to come to the office on my day off. 
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Jan 23, 2014 14:08
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