yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] mystax:
where do you buy this phone now. google has been restricted from selling this phone.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Mr.Mischief:
eBay and a few other sites have them. They'll be back in the Play Store next week.

Sent from my HTC One S
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dragongc:
The Verge just wrote a really good article about the problem with carriers and I feel this thread is the only solution: unlock penta-band phones sold straight to consumer so they can choose the carrier.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/5/31...re-the-biggest-threat-to-innovation-editorial
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jb24:
How does straight talk deal with the taxes? Because in IL cellphone plans are taxed at a rate of 21%. 15% is state stuff and the other 6 is fed. How do they only have to charge regular sales tax? Is prepaid different than postpaid?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] tsnstuff:
Just a bit of an Update and a question.

I'm on T-Mobile $30 plan for 100Min talk, Unlimited Text and 5GB Data.

This weekend I was up in Green Lake, Wisconsin. There I was roaming. I got a text message telling me the rates would be different and the Data would be $15/MB. I didn't even try doing any data or calling because I didn't want to risk it.

Aside from that, T-Mobile has been working amazingly for me. Yea I had no real service in Green Lake but I'm only there 3 to 6 days a year. So I'm happy.

My question is more with Roaming and difference between plans. I did a chat with T-Mobile and getting a straight answer from them was near impossible. I was asking specifically about the value plans vs the Prepaid plans because I noticed they cost the same yet the value plans require a 2 year contract, so I wanted to know what is the benefit. It didn't seem to matter how many times I told the guy that I already had a phone, he still wanted to explain that the benefit is in that I can buy a phone for full price and do like a payment plan.

Finally he told me that the service on both is the exact same but that on Prepaid I'd have to keep an eye on my $$ Balance.

So does anyone have a good clear understanding of how these work? I'm not looking to change, but when I explain the plans to someone I like to understand as much as possible.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jb24:
How were they going to charge you since it is pre-paid?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] harveydent:
It's my understanding that value plans are still postpaid, so there's your biggest difference. It's basically a cheaper version of their contract plans since you don't get a free phone. If that's the case, then it has the "perks" of postpaid, like free nights and weekends, voice and data roaming, and csrs who are in the us.

anyone here on/was on a tmo value plan who can shed light on this?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jb24:
Well my ST sim should be here tomorrow. My only fear is losing my number I have had the same number for 12+ years and will be really mad if they just cancel my account for no reason. Starting to have second thoughts on ST because of some of the horror stories I have read.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] lafester:
since you are on prepaid they can't charge you for anything unless there is money in the account. if you go postpaid if you roam and rack up $2000 in data fees they will send you a bill for that amount :)

the main benefits for post paid are night and weekend minutes, mobile to mobile calls, free roaming in US, subsidized phones (on most plans), better customer service etc.

---------- Post added at 06:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------

port your number to google voice!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jb24:
Any way to make texts work normally with GV?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] tsnstuff:
See and you'd think the Customer Service person I chatted with would have been happy to just say this to me. But he just said that they were the same. The weekends and mobile to mobile wouldn't apply since I was talking about the Unlimited plans, but he told me that roaming on prepaid would just count against my normal minutes. So if that's the case then I don't see the point in going with a Value plan if you already have a phone.

As for customer service, I hope what I've gotten before and after creating my account wasn't the "Better" one.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] lafester:
there are a few options posted in this thread but the easiest way is just to use the gvoice app. You have to decide if keeping your number secure is more important then having flawless integrated texting.

I've heard porting your number back out of google can be difficult so I would try it out first and make sure it works for you. I'm currently testing the waters with both lines open until I decide weather or not to jump all in.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] mystax:
ordered my tmobile straight talk sim. =( no phone though waiting for ban to be lifted.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jb24:
Thanks for the reply. So how is ST to port out of? If I ever get a warning I will leave for sure as I don't want it cancelled.

I would be all over GV but the texts not working perfect really bugs me. I text a lot of people.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
How do the texts not work perfectly? If you use the GV app it will work just fine.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] LionAR10:
I had RP for a month, it was good, no problems, easy activation and cheap SIMs on eBay. I went to Straight Talk to try their $45 plan, but if they fail I'll probably end up back on RP.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] LionAR10:
RP worked fine for me, though with most AT&T MVNOs you'll have a 2GB data cap.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] LionAR10:
The problem isn't the device with this approach, it's the carriers. Sprint and VZW won't activate it if it isn't in their databases .. that's part of the core model of the CDMA carriers. Sprint has a CDMA MVNO that now will activate stuff that's branded Sprint, but CDMA phones aren't as network agnostic as GSM and most of the time require flashing rituals and PRL changes that are not for the non-technically savvy.

The future, if we can avoid massive spectrum fragmentation and carriers like VZW and Sprint clinging to ESNs, will be LTE; it'll be a number of years, however, before that's ready for true quad-carrier mobility.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
I can confirm that the $50 GoPhone unlmited plan works with our phones. I didn't want to take any risk so I deleted the default APN and created my own with the lines wap.cingular only. I don't care for MMS. I ran a couple speedtest and hit a high of up to 745.1kB/s a low of 275.4kB/s. So this means they do not throttle. I did these test while driving because I live up the mountains and barely get any data up there. Would've done more but I didn't want to risk it.

I just activated it today so lets see if I can go a full month without having any problems. I'm a light data user and always connect to wifi at home and work (which is 95% of the time). My average monthly use is 1 to 1.5 gb.

I get signals in places I never did with T-Mobile, so I'm pretty satisfied right now. $50 for unlimited everything, unthrottled, can't be beat :)

---------- Post added at 05:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:21 PM ----------

If anyone is wondering, I ordered my sim card on amazon for a little over $2 and activated it online at AT&T GoPhone page. I used my GN's IMEI number without any issues. They don't know it's a smartphone.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ONWGMC/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

I received my sim card within a day of ordering because they are located in SoCal like me.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rubiconjp:
At that speed, it is edge, so it's full time throttled.. ;)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
That's kB/s not kbps.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
I changed the settings from kbps to kB/s so no, it's not throttled ;). If you want conversion, then it's around 7,451kbps down 901kbps up and 2754kbps down 290kbps up
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bfroehlich:
5,960.8/720.8 kbps and 2,203.2/232 kbps to be precise

...not to be a **** :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
I wouldn't know. I'm gonna run some more test when I'm at work tomorrow.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
There ya go. Going from kB/s to kbps you can't just move the decimal like going from kbps to mbps. Its actually a bit more of a conversion. Wish people would just post speed tests in kbps :p
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
I'll do it just for you tomorrow
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jlczl:
Oops. Double post.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jlczl:
I just popped in the SIM and used whatever apn was automatically configured by the GN. I use about 3gb per month.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jlczl:
Nope. Not throttled here in South Texas.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] matt2053:
You just multiply by 8.

8 bits make a Byte. Very simple.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
Here are a few more speedtest at a bunch of random places (mostly while driving on the freeway on my way to work) of the $50 GoPhone plan. Already ate through 150+mb of data and no signs of throttling.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rickhuizinga:
Unless there is a parity bit, in which case it takes 9 bits to be transmitted for each byte.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] spencer88:
He's talking about data speeds and bandwidth. You're talking about storage space. Similar yes but different if you're using parity.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rubiconjp:
My bad.. did not see the capital B. Byte by definition does not mean 8 bits. Byte means the number of bits to represent a character. Octet means 8 bits.

Some older IBM systems used 7-bit byte. But modern transmission all use 8-bit byte.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
Thanks guys for this thread. I made the move last night to the T-Mobile Monthly4G $70 5GB plan after getting throttling notifications on my AT&T "unlimited" plan yesterday. I couldn't be happier!

I'll see what my voice usage actually is this month and possibly drop down to the $30 plan. Thanks again for the information provided here - I wouldn't have considered prepaid an option otherwise!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jb24:
Well I have read most of this thread and the only complaints with GV I have seen are that the texts don't always work as good as through a regular carrier.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Never had an issue other than the general quirkiness of the app as far as threading goes. But I've never had issues sending/receiving.

The issues that people have come from them trying to forward GV texts to the carrier # and continuing to use the stock Messaging app. That starts to bring in problems.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
I'd assume that you pretty much get the normal nights/weekend/mobile-to-mobile minutes on the value plans. You're signing a 2-year contract so you get the postpaid perks like that and roaming.

The "Value" plans are much closer to the normal plans than prepaid plans. From my poking around, they're all the same as the "standard" postpaid plans, but they don't offer subsidies, so the monthly prices are lower.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] blaineevans:
Well, got my GSM on Tuesday, received my ATT ST sim yesterday.

Goddamn it's such a huge difference when coming from an LTE GN, ATT data is slowww.

Hopefully tmo next month does me better.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jlczl:
Loving my new setup on T- Mobile prepaid with Callingmart refills on my pebble blue Galaxy S3.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] blaineevans:
So.. AT&T is killing me.

Let's say I want to jump ship to the tmobile $30 /month deal.

Online it states available in store at Walmart. So if I run down to walmart, I can grab one of the refill cards, correct? Can these refill cards be used to actually activate a new account? Obviously, I still need a sim. Can I get the sim from Walmart as well? Or if not there, can I run down to the Tmobile store and grab a sim?

Basically, I don't want to wait for shipping periods at all. Would just like to get off AT&T as soon as possible (waste of $45 + $15 for sim, lol).

Secondly, it states it's for new activations only.. but I see people here have been able to refill their sims without issue, so really I shouldn't have any problem correct?

Lastly, someone stated it's .10 /minute after 100 minutes. Would I need to add a CC in order to take advantage of this? (I'm fine with that, just want to know the process and the Tmobile rep at the store was clueless.)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] aldo37:
You don't have to get the sim at walmart. Just go to any tmobile kiosk or order it online from the tmobile site http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Prepaid-SIM-Activation-Kit

Refill cards can be used to activate a new account.

I don't know how the .10c a minute goes, but I believe you have to have a cash balance in your account and as you use your minutes it will deduct from your balance. You can add money to your account via CC or via refill cards.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Refill cards can be purchased in store, but you're better off refilling online or with refill cards from a place like CallingMart. But no, a refill card is not the same as a SIM + Activation Kit. If you want to buy one of those in store, you need to buy a $30 burner phone with it to get a SIM and Kit, then put the SIM in your GNex and activate it online with the $30 5GB plan. If you don't want to pay $30, you can just buy the activation kit online: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Prepaid-SIM-Activation-Kit

And activate it here: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-activate

Well, those are your 2 options. Pay $30 to get it now, or wait a week.

Getting the $30 5GB plan is supposed to be for "new activations only". That means that if you're a current T-Mobile customer, you're not very likely to have them move you from your current plan to that plan. It has nothing to do with refilling your account. Refills are fine, it just acts like a normal prepaid plan after you activate and set it up.

Nope, you need to add money to the account first. You can hold extra money over $30 on your account if you want. For example, I'll often buy $60 refill cards (better discount sometimes) and load up the account to be drawn down in $30 increments two months in a row. You can add money to the account as a "slush fund" of sorts, so that if you ever go over 100 minutes, you'll just get a text message indicating it and it'll start taking $$ out of your account when you call.

Because its prepaid, you can't just add a CC and have them bill you later or bill you at the end of the month. The phone just won't work unless there's money on the account once you go over 100 minutes.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] blaineevans:
I aprecciate the info there martonikaj.

Just called Walmart and he said he had a burner phone for about $10 I could buy to get the activation kit, then of course get the card as well. I would probably refill from CallingMart from here on out, but I just was hoping to get something going today. One last question I forgot to ask, are they able to port numbers at all? Specifically from GV (if I unlocked the GV number to do so)?

On a not so important question, (I have severe OCD, so bare with me here). Is my Tmobile account always going to show that I own whatever burner phone I picked up? Or does it even display that information? My first time off Verizon in years, and thus far I've regretted the decision. So I apologize if I'm questioning things too much, lol.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bozzykid:
Yes, of course. Porting from GV should be fine assuming you provide the right info (Google is weird about delaying a port sometimes).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
No problem.

They let you port a number in just like anyone else. But not sure why you'd want to port from Google Voice to T-Mobile. Seems very unintuitive. Just have your GV # forward to your newly assigned T-Mobile number. That's the whole point of GV!

Because they don't have an ESN in the system like a CDMA network, you can make "My Account" say you have any phone you'd like. They just activated a SIM for you, not a specific phone (the burner is just a vessel to activate the SIM, you could do it on any phone). For example, my "My Account" says I have a white SGSII. You can make it say you have anything. Its completely irrelevant though. DOesn't matter what it says.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] blaineevans:
I've been using GV for all of 24 hours and already don't care for it. Call forwarding and what not is great, but I've been having issues with texts not going through, etc. And this is from within the GV app itself, not Messaging.apk. That, and the fact that it logs EVERYTHING ever done is kind of irritating. Because of my previously mentioned OCD, I'm the kind of guy that clears his call log as soon as the calls over and deletes texts as soon as the conversation is done. This has become a lot more difficult with GV.

I agree it's irrelevant, but goddamn it would bug me.

Thank you again, you've been a lot of help. :P
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
I'm a bit type A as well, but I've never had an issue managing the GV app. If anything its easier because its all in a central place and you can manage on any device (or browser). I'd recommend you give it more than 24 hours... Just seems like you're a little irritated with the sudden changes, not necessarily the app itself. But hey, everyone's got their own way of doing things.

Sure, no problem.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] leikamkei:
Hello to anybody and all that may be reading this post. I have a couple of concerns that hopefully can be resolved by the awesome community I see here. Well anyways here goes.

I am currently on T-Mobile and my contract will expire somewhere on October. However I am interested in Straight Talk SIM and I have already purchased one to "test" how it operates in my area and I am quite satisfied. I am aware of the ability to be able to activate a brand new SIM with an pre-existing number from another carrier. If you'd like to take a guess, I would like to port my number from T-Mobile when I do buy another one. But my main concern is, after activating my SIM using my T-Mobile #, what do I do? Do I call T-Mo to tell them that I'd like to port my number? What about ETF fees? I'm sorry if this has been answered, but I feel as if my situation is a bit too specific to be searching through. Thanks in advance!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Porting your T-Mobile number cancels your service with them, and you'll be charged the remaining month of service and your ETF. If you can, its best to wait till the end of your contract. If your ETF is low enough and you'd prefer to go now, then you should call T-Mobile and figure out everything, cancel your service and pay your ETF. At this time, your number will be "active" until the end of that month of service (that you've already started/paid for). Somewhere near the end of that, port it the number to Straight Talk.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jb24:
I would do the port first. No point in taking a chance of having tmobile cancel your number before the port is complete. It will be cancelled after you port and then you will pay the ETF.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] leikamkei:
Thank you very much for the info. I was planning to cancel soon anyways so I can help out the family financially :) Thanks again! Looking forward to joining the GNex family when I can place my order next week (hopefully) :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jazzruby:
Samsung wins temporary stay of Galaxy Nexus ban

http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/07/samsung-wins-temporary-stay-of-galaxy.html

but...

Google Play Store (Galaxy Nexus)

...still not available (yet).

-JR-
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
They're surely just going to wait until they can ship them out with 4.1. That was their plan and there's no reason for them to resume selling with 4.0.4 to just OTA later.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Cabal_:
Now available to add to cart, shipping "soon."
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Down to "1-2 weeks" from "2-3 weeks" from earlier today. Fits with their "resume selling next week" quote from a few days ago.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] SuperiorDrift:
Hello everyone,

I went through about 100 of the 160 of the pages here (skipped a few months of posts in between, but I don't think anyone asked this).

I just got my Galaxy Nexus, my contract ended a long time ago from AT&T and I'm thinking of jumping ship. My billing period starts again on the 2nd of each month.

Here are my questions:

1) If I jump ship, how many days should I allow myself prior to the next billing period? I'm thinking a week is a good amount of time, but should I consider shortening that time span?

2) I want to retain my number and go to Straight Talk, but I'm afraid of the possibility of Straight Talk dropping me as a customer if I am found tethering (probably won't even use it unless I'm out of town, kind of rare, maybe once or twice a year, or maybe often to my tablet, I'm really not sure how much tethering I'll do) or breaking their kind of ridiculous TOS. Is there a period of time between them canceling my term and me being able to switch carriers to retain my number?

3) Is there a cost to port my number to T-Mobile or to Straight Talk, and if there is, does anybody know the price for either?

Thanks so much guys. You've all contributed a large amount of information that is helping me decide if and when to jump ship from this expensive boat.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Just order your ST SIM now. It's not active until you choose to activate it. You can call and cancel your AT&T service and you'll still have service until the end of that bill period. Activate ST anytime before the end of the month with your AT&T number.

Do not activate without porting

, you must activate and port at the same time in order to bring your # over.

Not sure. I'd assume if they cut you off, your number is free to port somewhere else.

No.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] UncleMike:
Just today I began the porting process to port my number from Verizon to Google Voice. Before doing so I confirmed with Verizon that when a number is ported out, the charges for the current period are prorated. So for me, it didn't matter when I ported. They also told me that if I were to just cancel, the charges for the current period would not be prorated or refunded.

You may want to check with AT&T directly, as they may do the same.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
When my brother switched from AT&T to ST, they wouldn't give him a prorated month. They said that he had to pay out his last month in full. YMMV.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Gene_Bailey:
Hey all I didn't get an answer to my last question so I'm bumping it.

Do you all who use Straight Talk have any issues when using Google Wallet? Like the app saying your carrier does not currently support this feature or something to that effect? I ask because currently with no SIM card just to get the app to activate I had to use Market Enabler to fake my profile to T-Mobile and then the app opened up.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] defconoi:
Its 380 dollars to leave my t-mobile contract, should I do it? I pay 90 a month
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Did you not do the math when I held your hand through it in the other thread? Jesus...

If you pay $90/mo. now and switched to the $45 ST plan ($50 assuming tax), you'd be saving $40/month. At a $380 ETF, it'd take 9.5 months to cover your ETF. Assuming you keep your phone that's your bottom line. Assuming you sell your phone and buy a Galaxy Nexus (~$400 after tax and shipping), the difference would take longer.

Quickly, if you chose the $30 T-Mobile plan (if you can do 100 min/month) then it'd save $60/month and you'd pay off the ETF in 6.33 months.

Hate having to do the math for you... I think its important that people crunch the numbers for themselves so they

understand

why this can be a better option for them. Math aside, there's a lot of info to read before switching.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] SuperiorDrift:
I'll have to give them a call and see, I'm definitely leaning towards just waiting out this last month before I switch.

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind. So prior to activation do I just tell them I want to port my number via talking to a Straight Talk rep?