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Amcoti
Apr 7, 2004

Sing for the flames that will rip through here
Well it was nice while it lasted but looks like I'm done with smartel/bluegreen wireless. Had my latest auto payment fail, when I went to the site to try to update my billing information I found its been under construction for the past month or two. When I contacted customer support about it they asked me to email them my credit card number.

Back to Nerd Plan I go.

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FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

ThermoPhysical posted:

Yah, got that there too.

Oh hey, Omaha has Fi now. I dropped Cricket and moved over to Project Fi a few days ago.

Yeah, I'm losing 20GB of throttled LTE, but I have a better signal, full LTE, basically unlimited data because it's 1 cent/MB, and I only used at most 750MB per month anyway.

I'm currently on the US Cellular network and it's fuckin' fast as hell.

Maybe I can move away from Cox to Google Fiber next year. Probably not though.

Lol apparently my number is all hosed up, anyone who calls my GV (now Fi) number from within the 402 area gets this bizarre clicking noise, followed by half of a "please check the number and try again" recording which is overlapping a recording saying something like "4 0 2 D S O" even though they can call my old cricket number (which I have set up to forward to the GV/Fi number) and it'll get patched right through to my phone.

Calls from outside the area code apparently come in just fine. The recording is poo poo right out of one of those numbers stations complete with awful static noise.

e: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPr1WtJM1iY

poo poo's annoying.

FAUXTON fucked around with this message at 09:29 on Jan 6, 2017

lwoodio
Apr 4, 2008

Edit: got the referral thanks.

lwoodio fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jan 6, 2017

Rastor
Jun 2, 2001

Rumor: Sprint is going to experiment with plans on their Virgin Mobile brand, maybe even some kind of free tier. Nothing solid yet.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/sprint-plots-strategy-for-virgin-s-relaunch-as-boost-returns-to-growth

KennyLoggins
Dec 3, 2004
Welcome to the Danger Zone
Been using Page Plus for the past 6 years been happy but since Tracfone bought them out I have been having service issues. Verizon won't allow other phones so my Boost Mobile Moto G got blacklisted so I got a Droid 4. The D4 battery life is terrible and the phone is slow with CM13 and the replacement chinese batteries are full of fail. Looking for another carrier and phone.

Cricket and Google Fi seem interesting. Leaning more towards Cricket as AT&T has good service in my area. With Cricket can you buy a bunch of plans and stack them like P+?

cage-free egghead
Mar 8, 2004
The only way you'd be stacking on Cricket is either having multiple lines on the account (which saves up to $100/month if you've got 5 lines) or finding somewhere that sells Cricket re-up cards for a discount.

The nice thing though is that you can use just about any GSM unlocked phone or any phone that uses AT&T.

whatever7
Jul 26, 2001

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
The only stacking you can do w/ Cricket is open additional accounts with cheap phones during Black Friday. When you cancel the lines and sell the phones, the unused credit can be used by your primary line.

You have to buy the cricket sim unlock code from ebay though.

cage-free egghead
Mar 8, 2004
Tomorrow Cricket is upping their data allotment for plans.

$40 gets 2.5gb 3gb
$60 gets 10gb 12gb.

The $50 8gb plan is sticking around and won't be going back to 5gb. Unlimited is sticking around too.

FAUXTON
Jun 2, 2005

spero che tu stia bene

Still on the grandfathered $60 20GB plan but yeah bigger data allotments is always good.

Housh
Jul 9, 2001




Hey I got an unlocked Canadian iPhone 7 Plus I would like to use when I'm in the states. I'll be there for 2-3 months at a time. What's my best bet for a cheap prepaid sim i can stick in with good data options?

Blue Train
Jun 17, 2012

It depends where you're going as different companies have different coverage in different areas, but either cricket or total wireless will be your best bet. You can get the sims at walmart

whatever7
Jul 26, 2001

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Housh posted:

Hey I got an unlocked Canadian iPhone 7 Plus I would like to use when I'm in the states. I'll be there for 2-3 months at a time. What's my best bet for a cheap prepaid sim i can stick in with good data options?

Cricket, but u have to active the sim card online.

Mister Fister
May 17, 2008

D&D: HASBARA SQUAD
KILL-GORE


I love the smell of dead Palestinians in the morning.
You know, one time we had Gaza bombed for 26 days
(and counting!)

cage-free egghead posted:

Tomorrow Cricket is upping their data allotment for plans.

$40 gets 2.5gb 3gb
$60 gets 10gb 12gb.

The $50 8gb plan is sticking around and won't be going back to 5gb. Unlimited is sticking around too.

Seems like it's been the 2nd or 3rd time they have upped the data. Pretty happy with cricket so far

SweetMercifulCrap!
Jan 28, 2012
Lipstick Apathy
The Prepaid Smartphone Thread - Just Use Cricket

Blue Train
Jun 17, 2012

sweetmercifulcrap posted:

The Prepaid Smartphone Thread - Just Use Cricket

Seconded

whatever7
Jul 26, 2001

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

sweetmercifulcrap posted:

The Prepaid Smartphone Thread - Just Use Cricket

The Prepaid Smarphone Thread - running iPhone 7+ on Ringplus

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007




This works!

Still working on the thread, mostly trying to get a decent format going.

Housh
Jul 9, 2001




Anyone know of a good dual sim setup for iPhone?

cage-free egghead
Mar 8, 2004
what

Loucks
May 21, 2007

It's incwedibwe easy to suck my own dick.

Sure: get two sims, one Cricket, one anything else. Put the Cricket one in the phone and activate it. Throw the other one away.

EugeneJ
Feb 5, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
I thought I'd mention this here - Consumer Cellular has a thing for AARP members now that they're not advertising where if you switch to their service, they'll give you either an iPhone 5C for $35 or an iPhone 5S for $50.

Someone in my family just switched and I told them the 5S is a steal at that price.

revdrkevind
Dec 15, 2013
ASK:lol: ME:lol: ABOUT:lol: MY :lol:TINY :lol:DICK

also my opinion on :females:
:haw::flaccid: :haw: :flaccid: :haw: :flaccid::haw:

cage-free egghead posted:

Tomorrow Cricket is upping their data allotment for plans.

$40 gets 2.5gb 3gb
$60 gets 10gb 12gb.

The $50 8gb plan is sticking around and won't be going back to 5gb. Unlimited is sticking around too.

This takes me from thinking Cricket is the best general-purpose MVNO, to Cricket being almost suspiciously better than its competition.

I watch a ton of YouTube videos on my phone and so long as I switch the basically-podcasts to 144p / turn the screen off with Red I don't have to worry about data even on the 5gb. 8 is going to be a lot of leg room.

TLG James
Jun 5, 2000

Questing ain't easy

ThermoPhysical posted:

You have the option of giving the number to Google to use for Project Fi, porting it out to another Google account (they even tell you you can do this so it's not against TOS or anything, it's also free), or just letting it disappear forever as you cannot have Google Voice and Fi active on the same account.

If you leave Fi, however, the number will go back to Google Voice so you won't lose it or anything.

In fact, your GV number will remain a GV number until you activate the SIM (which you can do online or just by opening the Project Fi app with the SIM in your phone).

You can still make and take calls on your PC, text, block numbers, all that but if you have Wi-Fi Calling on in the phone app, it will take priority unless you turn Wi-Fi Calling off.

EDIT: Sweet! Yah, I ordered before December 20th so 2-day shipping was free.


Do you still text with the google voice webpage? That's what I'm most curious about. I use google voice a shitload at work on a computer because we can't bring phones into my work.

Also...

quote:

You can still make and take calls on your PC, text, block numbers, all that but if you have Wi-Fi Calling on in the phone app, it will take priority unless you turn Wi-Fi Calling off.
Does that just means that wifi calling is priority over cell calling? That's more than fine for me.

ThermoPhysical
Dec 26, 2007



TLG James posted:

Do you still text with the google voice webpage? That's what I'm most curious about. I use google voice a shitload at work on a computer because we can't bring phones into my work.

Google Voice is the backend of Fi, the page is just useable to listen to voicemail.

However, with Voice's new upgrade and Hangout's to be deprecated to business-only with Allo and Duo taking its place, Google may just replace Hangouts with Voice.

In fact, Google says they're working on a solution. https://9to5google.com/2017/01/30/project-fi-integration-might-be-coming-to-voice-google-is-working-on-a-solution/

TLG James posted:

Does that just means that wifi calling is priority over cell calling? That's more than fine for me.

Wi-Fi Calling will kick in whenever your signal isn't strong enough for calling over cellular. If you use Hangouts Dialer, it'll always be over Data but if you use the regular Phone app, it can be Wi-Fi Calling OR normal calling depending on your signal.



FAUXTON posted:

Lol apparently my number is all hosed up, anyone who calls my GV (now Fi) number from within the 402 area gets this bizarre clicking noise, followed by half of a "please check the number and try again" recording which is overlapping a recording saying something like "4 0 2 D S O" even though they can call my old cricket number (which I have set up to forward to the GV/Fi number) and it'll get patched right through to my phone.

Calls from outside the area code apparently come in just fine. The recording is poo poo right out of one of those numbers stations complete with awful static noise.

e: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPr1WtJM1iY

poo poo's annoying.

I'm sorry you had this problem, I never had it myself but I can see how it'd be frustrating.Hopefully, this supposed "solution" will fix things. :/

other people
Jun 27, 2004
Associate Christ
I apologise for being dumb up front....

My old dad wants to have a phone "just in case", only to make calls once in a blue moon. We have an unused and unlocked at&t iphone he can have, but what is the cheapest way to put it in service?

I could add it to my at&t fam. plan for $10/month and forget about it, but are there not services where you pay upfront *one time* for some chunk of minutes and then pay nothing more until you use them all and have to top up? Everything in the OP are just cheap monthly plans, all substantially more than $10/month....

I'm happy to have him on my plan but if there is such a service that I am imagining then in the long run it would likely be a lot cheaper for us.

Boogalo
Jul 8, 2012

Meep Meep




My dad has an old fliphone and a pay $.10 per minute plan on sprint I think. Not sure of the details but he switched back to it from our family plan a couple years ago so stuff like that definitely exists and is available.

The Slack Lagoon
Jun 17, 2008



Just switched my wife from her dad's att plan to my cricket plan and she said she's getting worse service then when she was on att. Using the same phone she was using on att.

Any validity to that?

Endless Mike
Aug 13, 2003



Yeah, it's possible. AT&T (and any provider with prepaid plans) gives preference to post-paid customers.

WithoutTheFezOn
Aug 28, 2005
Oh no

other people posted:

I could add it to my at&t fam. plan for $10/month and forget about it, but are there not services where you pay upfront *one time* for some chunk of minutes and then pay nothing more until you use them all and have to top up?
I'm no expert about this, but yes those services still exist (e.g. Tracfone) but it seems now that their "minute bucket cards" expire in 1-3 months, so it ends up being no (or not much) cheaper than about $10/mo if you want constant coverage.

EugeneJ
Feb 5, 2012

by FactsAreUseless

The Slack Lagoon posted:

Just switched my wife from her dad's att plan to my cricket plan and she said she's getting worse service then when she was on att. Using the same phone she was using on att.

Any validity to that?

Someone mentioned recently that Cricket's traffic gets routed through a proxy and is throttled at 8mb/s

So yes

sweart gliwere
Jul 5, 2005

better to die an evil wizard,
than to live as a grand one.
Pillbug

WithoutTheFezOn posted:

I'm no expert about this, but yes those services still exist (e.g. Tracfone) but it seems now that their "minute bucket cards" expire in 1-3 months, so it ends up being no (or not much) cheaper than about $10/mo if you want constant coverage.

Yeah, he could look for 6+ month expiration refills for talk/text without data on a GSM provider (careful not to allow data as an optional upcharge).

Or even those pay-per-day plans, which could be suited for what it sounds like he'd want. Usually $1 or $2 for a day's unlimited service of talk and text (typically slow data too), no charge for the inactive days. Which works well for emergencies or day trips or landline outages, since the worries would be only "is the payment method still valid" rather than "what's the balance this week"

whatever7
Jul 26, 2001

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
Page+ still has $80 per year refill card.

WithoutTheFezOn
Aug 28, 2005
Oh no

whatever7 posted:

Page+ still has $80 per year refill card.
Oh hey, cool. If you don't mind a quarterly topup and use a really small amount of minutes, they also seem to have 120 day cards of $10 for 100 minutes and $25 for 416 minutes (the $80 year card gives 2000 minutes).

I may end up using this for a relative as an "emergency car phone". Anyone know if Page Plus lets you buy three 120 day cards and apply them all at once?

E: apparently one more click answers that, sorry. Applying a new card restarts the 120 cycle, so the answer is no.

WithoutTheFezOn fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Feb 2, 2017

whatever7
Jul 26, 2001

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN
So Ringplus is finally closing shop, in about one week.

I hauled rear end and ordered a one-year Mint sim card for my wife (2gb/month package $177 shipped)

As for myself, I think I am going to cheap it out with free freedompop sims for now.

Rexxed
May 1, 2010

Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

I'm gonna miss my backup free phone. Freedompop kit ordered!

Mr.Radar
Nov 5, 2005

You guys aren't going to believe this, but that guy is our games teacher.
If you're on RingPlus and want to stay on Sprint's coverage, I'd recommend Tello. They have both a pay-as-you-go option (3c/minute, 1c/text, 2c/MB with no credit expiration as long as you use your phone once every 6 months) and customizable monthly plans (so you pick how many minutes/texts/MB per month you want). Porting from RingPlus is easy and you don't even need a new SIM card.

Also, if you're thinking about getting Freedompop, be aware that they switched their network provider to a UK company called Fogg Mobile who use their roaming agreement with AT&T to provide service in the US, so it won't work with Sprint-locked devices. Their service was also downgraded to 3G/HSPA-only (even on paid tiers) and only 200 MB data on their free tier (compared to 500 MB when they were with Sprint). EDIT: Apparently they now offer an LTE-compatible SIM for US customers, which wasn't the case when I ordered mine back in December. EDIT 2: Now I'm not sure about the GSM-only part either. Has anyone activated a CDMA device with them recently?

Mr.Radar fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Feb 4, 2017

SB35
Jul 6, 2007
Move along folks, nothing to see here.

whatever7 posted:

So Ringplus is finally closing shop, in about one week.

I hauled rear end and ordered a one-year Mint sim card for my wife (2gb/month package $177 shipped)

As for myself, I think I am going to cheap it out with free freedompop sims for now.

Is there a discount code to get down to $177 on the mint sim?

whatever7
Jul 26, 2001

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

SB35 posted:

Is there a discount code to get down to $177 on the mint sim?

https://slickdeals.net/f/9718788-mi...?src=SiteSearch

There was a even better code about 1 months ago that drop the 1 year deal to 130+ after tax but I missed the boat

whatever7
Jul 26, 2001

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Mr.Radar posted:

If you're on RingPlus and want to stay on Sprint's coverage, I'd recommend Tello. They have both a pay-as-you-go option (3c/minute, 1c/text, 2c/MB with no credit expiration as long as you use your phone once every 6 months) and customizable monthly plans (so you pick how many minutes/texts/MB per month you want). Porting from RingPlus is easy and you don't even need a new SIM card.

Also, if you're thinking about getting Freedompop, be aware that they switched their network provider to a UK company called Fogg Mobile who use their roaming agreement with AT&T to provide service in the US, so it won't work with Sprint-locked devices. Their service was also downgraded to 3G/HSPA-only (even on paid tiers) and only 200 MB data on their free tier (compared to 500 MB when they were with Sprint). EDIT: Apparently they now offer an LTE-compatible SIM for US customers, which wasn't the case when I ordered mine back in December. EDIT 2: Now I'm not sure about the GSM-only part either. Has anyone activated a CDMA device with them recently?

Freedompop actually still leave the old Sprint BOYD option open, the price has always been 19.99+tax but they have a free BYOD promotion right now.

https://www.freedompop.com/byodpromo5

So if you have a Sprint phone lying somewhere, or a phone on Ringplus, you can sign up for free.

This is actually better than the global GSM sim option because that deal only give you 200MB base data.

I was able to disconnect a LG Tribute HD and a LG Volt from R+ and sign up to this deal right away. There is no way to input the ICCID number I guess you have to email support and ask them to update it for you.

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SB35
Jul 6, 2007
Move along folks, nothing to see here.

whatever7 posted:

https://slickdeals.net/f/9718788-mi...?src=SiteSearch

There was a even better code about 1 months ago that drop the 1 year deal to 130+ after tax but I missed the boat

If this was riding on AT&T or Verizon it's be perfect for my father, but the areas he goes for work have poo poo Tmo service ☹️

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