yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ccpotato:
GV is a boon to me. Within 3 minutes I can pop in a new SIM, re-set the forwarding number, and continue on my way texting and dialing.

The contract scheme is soooooooooooooooooooo antiquated. Contrast to the UK where there are many more providers and many more plans without the prepaid "burner" stigma.

It's amusing to hear people talk of "upgrading phone" and "have to wait til contract expires". Whatever happened to just plain BUYING STUFF and owning it?

Alas, I dont think people will ever see the light. It's somewhat endemic here that too many people (kids) want to have toys without fronting the money, so they'll leech on the subsidy model.... until, ironically, it's the subsidy model that sucks them dry.

Anyway, nice summary

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:38 PM ----------

im not sure youre seeing it true here

1) bribing and guilting? we're not talking about contract-model here with people calling to haggle over retention offers. this is the customer choosing what he/she wants, on his/term term, on his/term time. pop in sim card, choose a plan, refill the plan. 3 minutes online. this is the opposite of what youre shooting at

2) we dont port. our google voice number is going to last us a hell of a lot longer than your carrier-issued number. with gv, i can have my number forwarded to my personal mobile, my business mobile, my business desk phone. based on the incoming number. based on calling time. in fact, i have much much more freedom with it than you do with yours.

3) its not about the cost savings... its ultimately about flexibility. i have more choice of carriers = more choice of coverage. and for those of us who travel internationally, essentially we have coverage anywhere on the planet.

cdma is a dinosaur. its amazing how marketing has worked it into the american conscience that RENTING phones and phone service is an acceptable business practice
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ninjames:
Yeah I'm so close to getting the Nexus, I was also wondering if there were any devices. Mostly, I'm just concerned about the radio. I don't want to modify my phone at all and lose a warranty, but people constantly talk about how the radio blows and how the HSPA+ speeds are wasted because the Galaxy Nexus has a shoddy radio.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Who says that? My speeds are fantastic.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ninjames:
There's way more talk about signal and radio issues on this forum than any other phone, pretty much.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
Things can always be improved by changing different things around - this applies to radio firmwares as well as ROMs, kernels, bootloaders, etc. Just because there's a lot of talk about how to improve reception doesn't mean that the stock reception or speed is a huge problem.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
I think the CDMA guys are the ones with the radio issues.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] spencer88:
That is correct. The cdma version has some major issues.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
The CDMA phone has tons of radio issues. The GSM has no known problems with radios really.

Not to mention that you're only going to hear from people that have bad experiences. You'll see many more people complaining than praising service. The ones who are happy will just stay quiet and enjoy the service.

My phone is bone stock and T-Mo pulls down 8+mbps and up 3+mbps. Don't see how that's bad performance.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] raiderep:
Thanks, are there any limitations you have come across as far as flashing custom roms? I'm actually a pure Google experience kind of guy so not being able to won't influence me one bit but the curious side of me likes to flash one now and then to get a new respect for how well stock just plain works ;)

Sent from my Nexus S 4G
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
I don't flash ROMs on my Galaxy Nexus. I think stock is great. But pretty needless to say theres a huge dev community and its dead simple to unlock, root, and flash this phone.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] urinsane:
Newegg

I've been following this thread closely for awhile, trying to decide if I should cancel my Sprint contract and go this route. I unfortunately couldn't help myself and bought the S2 Epic Touch in October, so I would be hit hard with cancellation fees. I know I'd still probably break even by the end of the year after selling the Epic Touch, but there is still a cash outlay of around $850 ($600 for the phone, $250 for early termination fee). The ETF starts to go down $20/month after this month for me, so I might just hold out for a few months to see if any of the new Android superphones are pentaband.

Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but Newegg is selling the Galaxy Nexus for $580. If anyone isn't familiar with them, I've used them for years, and they have a great reputation.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875176322

They also have white for $10 more.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Its not going to be worth it if you're this close to the start of your contract. You're better off letting the ETF move down a bit and getting the next Nexus, honestly...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] LionAR10:
I have re-upped Straight Talk's $45 BYOD plan for another month. I noticed no strangeness during the first month, but was pleasantly surprised to see good coverage in some seriously rural areas. (All HSPA/HSUPA) Speeds have been across the board good and I have no complaints.

They are rather spammy about renewal at the end of the month though, with a number of texts and emails coming in to remind me. I did find that they charged me sales tax, E911, Universal Access, and other taxes, which in my state (MN) got me to $50.07 with all that in an online purchase... I could have bought the card from WalMart and not get nailed with the extra fees but I would spend more in gas than the difference there-and-back in my 16MPG truck (and I'd still have to pay the sales tax).

There may be other solutions to squeezing that $5 back, but that becomes and time vs money thing for me, so I think I may not make it an issue.

I have streamed a number of times while driving, both Pandora and Tune In Radio (mostly DI). I tethered a few times as well, short sessions for my tablet (A500) and laptop to surf the web or write emails. I avoided large downloads while tethering. My final use for the month came to 1.2GB total. I had no problems with data during the last month. Be aware I am not using the data proxy and just have the raw APN set. I do not MMS either.

I have not had to call CS. I did not "port in", instead I just had them allocate me a new number. The web process for both ordering the SIM and activation was without problems.

I purchased a ST TMO SIM for my gf's TMO Nexus S; ordering, activation, and use of that phone has been without complaint or issue. She has not noticed a difference in service from Simple to TMO prepaid to ST. She has very similar use habits in terms of data types and use rates. She has good speeds and has experienced no problems with data. "Good" here is a general sense of the speed, as speed tests were not performed.

Overall, I am very pleased. We took a combined bill of almost $300 (I on Sprint, she on ATT) down to $100 total. And NO CONTRACTS.

Win.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] urinsane:
I was tending to agree with you. However, if I can sell my old phone for $300 and the $30/mo plan is enough for me, I would break even in December.

If I end up on a $45/mo plan, I would break even next February/March.

Even taking into account that my ETF is dropping $20/mo I am still paying over $40/mo extra each month I stay with Sprint.

I'm going to wait until next month anyway as I just bought a Jeep and got laser eye surgery, so cash is a bit short! Maybe by then a new pentaband beast will be announced.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
that's interesting that they charged for E911 and universal access. Re-upping on T-Mo Prepaid (online) I just paid tax. So my total for $30 plan was like $32.75 or so (WA sales tax is high, almost 10%).

I think that Walmart does "E-Mail delivery" of refill cards. Not sure about Straight Talk but I thought they did that... they just email you a code when you buy it. Guess if you wanted to look into the future you could buy refill cards from the Straight Talk (or Walmart) websites and have them snail-mailed... doesn't dodge tax but probably dodges E911 and UA? But honestly, even if you just want to re-up online and pay the $50.xx every month, its still a killer deal. I see myself going to this plan eventually as I'll be graduating college soon and need more minutes. But until then I'm pocketing $40 a month on this $30 plan!

I've noticed that the T-Mo Prepaid plan is a tad spammy with SMS too, but no E-Mails. I get a SMS 3 days until, 2 days until, and once or twice the day of renewal. Then confirmation the next morning when my card is charged. Its not a huge deal but I wish we coulda just turn them off in the account settings. I bet they just try to spam people a little bit because prepaid literally shuts of when the time comes up on your plan. Its different than postpaid.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] JCreazy:
I have been using Straight Talk for a few days now and I love it. I get the same coverage that I had with AT&T. I ported my number which took less than 10 seconds. I am not keeping track of data but I know I use less than 2GB a month. As for the spammyness, it is kind of annoying, especially when the messages are in text lingo and not proper English.

---------- Post added at 09:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 PM ----------

You could try this, apparently people are getting out of their contract without paying ETF.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] urinsane:
I saw that yesterday and got really excited. Unfortunately its only for family plans.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ninjames:
Will these carriers work with any GSM unlocked phone? I'm just wondering if things like the RAZR, etc. I know that the Nexus is pentaband, but is that required? Would a quadband phone be fine and able to work on both t-mobile/at&t? Can you clear this up for me? I know you want folks to get the Nexus, it's just too expensive for me right now. But I'm presently using a phone with a 600 mhz processor, and as opposed to spending 300 to upgrade on Cricket, I'd like to buy an unlocked phone with something that can actually run, you know, angry friggin birds or words with friends without freezing ten times.

So are there phones that will work with this just fine in the same way? Obviously they won't have the benefit of ICS, but WHAT EXACTLY do I need to look for in phone features when looking for a new one to assure that I can jump around to find the best prepaid plan? Thanks so much if you guys can help and sorry for the long-winded question (s).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Not weird at all, but it is covered ITT (just a few pages ago I talked about this).

The only requirement is the phone being unlocked.

Pentaband isn't a requirement, but it is nice to have because you can use either T-Mobile or AT&T at your discretion. As the idea of prepaid is being able to move from carrier to carrier, it just opens up more options. Quadband works just fine, but it pins you to either AT&T

or

T-Mobile. You'll find most phones that are quadband will be AT&T compatible (because AT&T shares bands with most major carriers in the world). So you'll probably be going with Straight Talk (AT&T) with those.

Any quadband phones that support AWS (T-Mo freq) probably are coming from T-Mobile themselves, or Wind/Moblicity in Canada. Very few phones are just quadband AWS (because very few carriers rely on AWS). More often phones that support AWS will be pentaband phones.

As I noted a couple pages ago, someone can easily buy a factory unlocked iPhone 4/4S (quadband) and use it jut fine on Straight Talk. You don't have to buy a pentaband phone.

Hope that helps a bit. Just be sure to do your research before buying so you don't get stuck with a phone with the wrong frequencies for what you want to do. As I noted earlier if you're looking for cheaper alternatives you're more than likely going to go with AT&T because there are more phones available.

Good luck.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ninjames:
So AWS is what I need to assure it has t-mobile? What about AT&T? Thanks much
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] JCreazy:
Just look and see what bands the phones have, if it has 850/1900 bands that is for AT&T. T-Mobile uses 1700/2100. If there is a specific phone that you are looking at and you are unsure, we would be more than happy to tell you would network it would run on.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
As I said, about any quadband phone that's not specifically made for one of the few AWS carriers will probably be AT&T compatible. It uses 850 & 1900mhz. AWS is 1700/2100 (not the same as 1700 & 2100 separately!!). And again as I said its not easy to find them unless they're branded T-Mobile or just pentaband.

You can always ask here if you need clarification. But the simplest way to compare is simply look at an AT&T (or T-Mo) branded phones spec sheet, and compare it to the phone you're looking to purchase.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] reuthermonkey:
Let's be crystal clear here.

850 and 1900 are 2 separate frequency bands that ATT uses for their 2g and 3g coverage.

The AWS band is commonly listed simply as "1700". Technically it uses frequencies in the 1700mhz and 2100mhz frequency bands, but it's a single frequency band.

Many phones (like the galaxy nexus) will display their supported frequencies like this:

850/900/1700/1900/2100

That's 5 separate bands.

900/1700/2100 = 3 separate bands (not 2).

etc.

Either way, if you see '1700' listed on its own on a phone 99.999999% percent of the time it's T-Mobile compatible.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ninjames:
One last question ... what's the frequency they use for 4G, or rather, HSPA+? Because the frequencies mentioned are labeled under 2G on most Amazon listings.

"2G Network

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network

HSDPA 900 / 2100"

That's an example of something I see, for instance, for the Incredible S. I doubt that's what I'll get, but is that phone capable of HSPA+ speeds? I rarely see that listed anywhere.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rubiconjp:
I see a lot of these international unlocked smartphones with 3G/UMTS bands of 900/2100 and according to this, those probably are EU, Asia, etc. compatible units (3G wise) and might not be compatible in the US with AT&T and TMo. Any clarification?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] reuthermonkey:
The 2g and 3g/4g frequencies do not have any relation to each other. So in your example, the above phone will have basic 2g voice and EDGE data on all 4 bands used for 2g around the world. This is very standard and has been for at least 5 years now. If a phone is not quadband 2g, please promptly discard it into the nearest trash bin.

However, that phone only supports 3g/4g on 900 and 2100 bands, which are *not* used by T-Mobile or ATT. The 900 and 2100 bands are used everywhere in the world except North America.

And as far as hspa+ or hsdpa, etc. Those are all 3g network upgrades riding on the same 3g network using the same frequencies. If the device you're looking at supports hspa+ it will say 21mbps hspa+ or 42mbps hspa+ in the description. Hsdpa is any device with specs listed slower than 21mbps. Typically hsdpa maxes out at 7.2mbps, although you'll find some phones which support 14.4mbps hsdpa.

An interesting phone is something like the galaxy s 4g which is sold by tmobile and described as a 4g phone. However it's not actually hspa+ capable as it maxes at 14.4mbps ans can't get to 21mbps. Additionally, it supports 4 frequency bands for 3g service- 900/1700/1900/2100. It has 1700 for T-Mobile, 900 and 2100 for Europe, but only 1900 for use on ATT without any 850 support for 3g. This means that you'll probably be able to use it in the city for 3g on ATT, but you won't get 3g in rural areas where ATT has 3g on the 850 band.

It is pretty convoluted, but if you really want to learn more detail, the Wikipedia articles on "hspa" and "wcdma frequency bands" are a good start.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ninjames:
Guess I'll try and do some research! I never knew it was that complicated. I just want a phone with good speeds I can use prepaid with WITHOUT paying $600 :[ I mean, my current phone using a single 600 MHz processor. I don't need to jump from that to a $600 Nexus.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] guyhoang:
I just got T-Mobile's $30 a month plan and I love it. I get speeds of about 4-6Mbps, and that's plenty enough for me.

Another reason I switched is because I wanted a GSM phone. My Verizon LTE Galaxy Nexus had terrible battery life, and it seems that the HSPA+ devices are better in that regard.

Now I just need a phone. I'm currently using the Exhibit II, and it's a fine device for $200. However, I am used to high end phones like the 4S and Galaxy Nexus. So I'm already looking to get a new device!

I just realized that the GNex doesn't support UMA. This might be a dealbreaker since I don't get T-Mobile at work. I might get the Amaze 4G then.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
While the GNex doesn't support UMA (since it's not a T-Mobile-branded device), I've had pretty good success using GrooveIP and Google Voice to make/receive calls seamlessly over wifi when my coverage is spotty.

I'm not sure that you can even get UMA on prepaid, but I could be wrong.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Hmm I'm not sure. I should drop my G2 back to 2.3 w/ WiFi calling and put my Prepaid SIM in it and see if it works. I'm sure it would.

But with only 100 minutes, no ones really making many calls with this plan :p

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus i9250
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Could just buy a Nexus S.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus i9250
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] guyhoang:
UMA works great on prepaid. I use it at work to send texts.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Good to know. Figured it did. Its more of a device thing than a network thing.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus i9250
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Jcbpnl:
Wonderful post. I'm planning on dropping my $80 a month with T-Mobile to move to the Straight Talk $45 unlimited everything and get one of their ATT sims. They seem to have better coverage here compared to T-Mobile.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] :
Just caught up on this thread. Fantastic info as always, save for my pet peeve, "4G" shouldn't be used anywhere in this thread. Hate that misleading marketing.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
"4G" just refers to the 4th Generation of cellular wireless standards, of which both HSPA+ and LTE are candidate systems. Verizon's marketing aside, "4G" is an accurate description for HSPA+.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] :
No, it's not. This version of LTE really isn't either but when you have money, I guess you can say what you want and influence others to get them to say what you want. At best HSPA+ is a 3.5G term.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
You are correct that the current LTE and WiMAX offerings do not truly comply with the IMT-Advanced standard as defined by the ITU-R, however the organization has also stated that the "4G" terminology could still reasonably be applied to current LTE, WiMAX, and other "other evolved 3G technologies" that offer substantial improvements over the initial third-generation systems currently deployed.

The terminology actually adopted by technology players in the industry also considers both HSPA+ and LTE to be 4G technologies.

/nit-picking
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] JCreazy:
I'm not using a nexus but an inspire.anyway, I'm not getting mms on straight talk. I'm using the apn settings that they gave me.

Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
Screenshot of your APN settings so we can verify?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] JCreazy:
The xda app isn't letting me upload but they are the settings from straight talk.I can send them and people receive them,I just can't get them.

Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] aiinjylls:
I have moved from Simple to Straight Talk, but I can't get Speed test to work. It reports 0.01 mbps down and about 1.5 mbps up...am I missing something?

On Simple I was getting 0.12 mbps up and down
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] LionAR10:
Take out the proxy info from the APN and it should work.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] aiinjylls:
Thanks, am I removing the APN proxy? MMS Proxy? Both? Do I remove the ports, as well?

EDIT: yup, removed APN proxy and port and speeds are now as expected! Thanks, again LionAR10
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] LionAR10:
The APN one.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] android808:
Just wanted to thank LionAR10 for taking the time to make this guide. I've been on ST with an AT&T sim for almost a month now and I have no complaints. My coverage and speeds are identical or better than my girlfriends 4s on AT&T. I just re-upped with 3 months purchased from Walmart.com and only got charged sales tax which comes out to $43.75 a month(pin # gets emailed to you & it's a little cheaper when you buy a longer service plan). I agree they are quite spammy with the sms and emails even after they sent one confirming I'm covered till the end of June but with unlimited text it really doesn't matter. Love my Gnex on ST thanks again!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Good to hear. Sounds like ST is working out for a lot of people.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] JCreazy:
Is anyone else having oasis receiving MMS?

Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ogp:
Hi all. I recently made the transition over to the enlightened side. I ported my old Sprint number to Google Voice, bought a Galaxy Nexus and am on the T-Mobile $30 monthly 4G plan.

My question is with the configuration of Google Voice. I have my ported number set as my primary number (I also paid to keep my original Google Voice number) and forwarding to my new T-Mobile prepaid number. I can't configure Google Voice on my new number (not supported with T-Mobile prepaid) so how can I have Google Voice forward my calls and still receive my voice mail? Right now if I don't answer my Google Voice number, I get my T-Mobile voice mail.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
Call customer support and ask them to disable voicemail on your line. After it rings long enough, the call will fall back to the Google Voice voicemail. This gets around the lack of conditional call forwarding, but will only handle calls made to your Google Voice number - unanswered calls to your "real" number will just ring forever.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] spencer88:
From what I've read you have to call T-Mobile and have the voicemail part disabled.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] aiinjylls:
I could not get it to work with T-Mobile, either
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] LionAR10:
Yes, this is done by calling customer service. I've done it before. It only takes a minute and all you need to do is ask that your voicemail be disabled. The CSR should be able to make that change while you are on the phone.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ImDonly1:
Anyone else having data issues on straight talks service via AT&T? It seems for half of the day until like 5pm my data won't connect or will rarely connect. I have to toggle airplane mode a bunch of times before it will maybe work for 5 minutes. It just started about 2 weeks ago. It was fine before then.

I'm in the Chicago area.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BinkXDA:
Because I’m on the 30USD/100 minute plan, I have all my calls forwarded to voice mail (and use VoIP instead). That said, anyone know what will happen if you have all your calls forwarded to voice mail and voice mail is disabled?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ogp:
Wouldn't it just ring indefinitely?

What are you using for VoIP?

For those that have disabled voicemail on T-Mobile, how many rings does it take to go back to Google Voice?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
Just tested - looks like 4-5 rings.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BinkXDA:
The built-in Internet Calling and http://www.voipo.com.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] rubiconjp:
Question - so if I drop ST next month to try out some other deal, then another 30 days later, decide that I want to go back to ST's $45 deal, can I reuse my old ST SIM or have to order another?

At $15 a pop for ST SIM, that can get expensive hopping around.