[DeadmanIncJS]

Is anybody using http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans (the $30 100min unlimited txt/data) plan? What are your thoughts on it vs something like StraightTalk that is unlimited everything for $45 but throttled speeds?

 

[bhayes444]

I used to have both. The $30 T-mobile plan was a dream come true. I had reliable speeds, unlimited texting, but both myself and my girlfriend hated the latency issues I had on wifi calling. If you're not the biggest talker in the world then I highly recommend this plan. But, if you do like to make lots of calls on your phone then I would try every wifi /data calling set up possible to find one that works for you; I was just too impatient with it to get it to work well. There's nothing worse than cutting someone off because you didn't realize they had started talking 4 seconds ago due to horrible latency issues.

The Straight Talk (At&t) plan was working okay, but their APN settings they gave me to enter were pure garbage. I couldn't get data to work for a couple of days until I Google searched around for better ones. Once I got that squared away it was overall a good service to use. I just didn't like their customer service one bit the time I called them about the APN settings. They had me take out the battery and SIM card like 10 times! Come on... really? Anyway, for my area (outside of Raliegh, NC) the coverage and speeds were about the same, but ping was always worse on Straight Talk.

You take what you can get I guess. I was happy with T-Mobile so I just paid for the $50/mo plan and deal with the 100MB of 4G data (unlimited 2G afterwards) since I'm around Wifi nearly 95% of the places I go. In fact, most recently (like last week or so) I jumped back onto my parents family plan on T-Mobile and just pay them the $20 for data and $5 added line charge. But as soon as I need to leave that plan I'll most likely be on T-Mobile prepaid, or ST (if the coverage for TM is just too poor).

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

the coverage in the area's i would be look ok with T-Mobile. i have straight talk now, but the latency is HORRIBLE! i think they throttle speed anyway because i can't even run a speed test to find out what kind of rates i'm doing. i've talked to somebody at TMO and they said they throttle speeds on pre-paid. but i've talked to a few on G+ and they say they aren't throttled, so who knows! as far as how much I talk on the phone. not a whole heck of a lot. MAYBE 250min a month on average. and if i setup VoIP i'd be just fine. just got some thinking to do i suppose. thanks for the input

 

[mrlatepass]

Im on Tmobile prepaid
If you mean do they throttle after you use 2gb (on the 2gb plan with unlim talk/text; after 5gb on that plan)
YES THEY DO

Prior to that though I run speed tests anywhere form 6mbps to 15mps down

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

cool, thanks!

 

[codesplice]

the coverage in the area's i would be look ok with T-Mobile. i have straight talk now, but the latency is HORRIBLE! i think they throttle speed anyway because i can't even run a speed test to find out what kind of rates i'm doing. i've talked to somebody at TMO and they said they throttle speeds on pre-paid. but i've talked to a few on G+ and they say they aren't throttled, so who knows! as far as how much I talk on the phone. not a whole heck of a lot. MAYBE 250min a month on average. and if i setup VoIP i'd be just fine. just got some thinking to do i suppose. thanks for the input

I've been on the $30/mo T-Mobile plan since about February, and I love it. I don't talk on the phone much; lots of data is more important to me. You get throttled (to about 60kbps - ouch!) after you exceed your data allotment (5GB on this plan), but you can also generally call and get your next month started early if you need to. So if I run out of data every 20 days rather than 30, I would pay $30 3x in 2 months so an average of $45/mo for ~7.5GB of data per month. Pretty slick option if you need it.

For minutes, I have toyed with various VoIP options (details in the thread linked in my sig), but I've gone back to just making do with the minutes I've got. And really, 10c/min for overages isn't terribly unreasonable. If you use 250 minutes a month, just keep an extra $15 positive balance on your account and you'll pay ST prices for faster (and more) data and enough minutes to cover you.

For speed testing on ST, I seem to remember that you need to remove the proxy entry from your APN settings.

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

thanks codesplice. perhaps after the 1st of the year i'll just break down and give it a shot. if i don't like it i'll just go back to ST.

 

[codesplice]

thanks codesplice. perhaps after the 1st of the year i'll just break down and give it a shot. if i don't like it i'll just go back to ST.

No problem. The real benefit of doing the GSM prepaid thing is flexibility - you can hop carriers/plans as much and as frequently as you like. Let me know if you have any further questions - I've become a bit of a raging prepaid evangelist :-D

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

dude, i LOVE the idea of no contract! i ordered my T-Mobile sim earlier today so i should get it by end of the week or early next. definitely going to have a ton of questions even though i've read the guide on XDA like 100x's hahhah. love my GSM GNEX and will never again have a contract.

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

FYI i broke down and bought the SIM today.

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

got my T-Mobile card in the mail today guess i'll have to get this setup on Sunday (my only day off).

 

[codesplice]

Sweet! Let me know if you run into any issues.

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

well, i guess my 1st question is... i want to port my current # to GV. so i'll never have to worry about telling anybody a new #. if i do that, when people call me will that go towards my 100min or only if they call the T-Mobile #?

 

[codesplice]

well, i guess my 1st question is... i want to port my current # to GV. so i'll never have to worry about telling anybody a new #. if i do that, when people call me will that go towards my 100min or only if they call the T-Mobile #?

Keep in mind that GV by itself doesn't provide any VoIP service. GV is only a forwarding service, so standard calls made to/from your GV number still count against your minutes. You do have the option though of adding in some sort of VoIP capability by the use of GrooveIP or a similar setup.

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

ok, how would i have it setup then to where i can keep my current cell # but do the VoIP thing?

btw, i'm sorry ahead of time for the 20 questions

once i get the # deal figured out, i'm sure i can do the rest.

 

[codesplice]

ok, how would i have it setup then to where i can keep my current cell # but do the VoIP thing?

btw, i'm sorry ahead of time for the 20 questions

once i get the # deal figured out, i'm sure i can do the rest.

So you want to use VoIP without using Google Voice? I don't have experience with that, but I believe you can setup voip.ms to use your existing phone number. I think.

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

ah nevermind. i did some reading in the thread from xda. i know what i gotta do. just all kind of confusing

basically if i want to keep my current #, i want to port it to GV - correct?

then forward the calls to whatever # TMO gives me - correct?

then setup the GrooveIP - if i understand correctly.

 

[codesplice]

ah nevermind. i did some reading in the thread from xda. i know what i gotta do. just all kind of confusing

basically if i want to keep my current #, i want to port it to GV - correct?

then forward the calls to whatever # TMO gives me - correct?

then setup the GrooveIP - if i understand correctly.

That's the route I would recommend. This also makes sure that you "own" your number so you'll never have to worry about giving out a new one to friends and family.

 

[DeadmanIncJS]

cool, thank you! might mess w/this tonight when i'm off work. i'll let ya know how it goes when i get it done.

 

[codesplice]

Have you set up the T-Mobile SIM yet? Or ported your number to T-Mobile? If so, you should be aware that any positive balance on your T-Mobile Prepaid account will disappear if/when you port that number to Google Voice since you would effectively be closing that account. If you haven't ported your number to T-Mobile yet and want to just port it directly to Google Voice and then forward GV to whatever random number T-Mobile gives you, you're good to go. Just keep in mind that the process of porting to GV *may* take up to 3 days for all the necessary SMS routing to be in place, though the voice routing seems to get handled much more quickly.