yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
I had the $30 T-Mobile plan in the past and have tethered a lot without being flagged.

I am 1337 Google Voice user, too.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BrianDigital:
One would hope since you have limited amount of data, that tethering would not be a restriction
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dialdayo:
Hey guys, I bought my Galaxy Nexus the day I heard Google Play was selling it for $400. Im in the last month of my Sprint contract (upgraded from the Evo 4G and aside from a few wifi issues) im loving my Galaxy Nexus. I decided to get straight talk and I am definitely enjoying the HSPA+ speeds so far! That speed was just a quick test in the house so I'm sure I will see even better speeds. Sprint 3G was ABYSMAL!!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Simply the data limit is what's keeping me away. I agree with not messing with VOIP though. Its more trouble than its worth. If you need that many minutes and the data, buy the $60 Simple Mobile plan IMO.

---------- Post added at 01:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:08 PM ----------

Well, the problem only gets in once you use a lot of data. I keep hearing a number like 200mb, once you go over that amount on a "desktop" UAstring, you get the tether redirect. Using the stock Browser and "request desktop site" isn't giving me redirects.

As far as tethering a tablet or desktop/laptop, it seems that T-Mobile is only "blocking" full Chrome. They're not blocking Safari or Firefox. You can even get an extension for Chrome to spoof the UAstring as Firefox or Safari (although it breaks some features and some tabs/sites don't load right. Basically my way around it is when I'm out of the house tethering, I just use Firefox. Its an inconvenience but I just can't deal with calling T-Mobile right now and complaining (as if that got me anywhere). I was out a bit last week and tethered a good 2GB straight on Firefox and got no messages.

There are some threads going on on the T-Mobile support forums about this, and T-Mobile is surely aware of this. They're probably just trying to figure out how they can "stop" (doesn't really stop anything) tethering without also blocking people on Chrome Beta for Android (soon to be out of Beta, too). Guess we'll see.

For now it seems like there's no way to get them to remove the flag on your account. It seems to just go away eventually once you've not used a lot of data. I've had this happen 2x before on my previous device (T-Mo G2) and it went away after a few weeks.

Well they say that the 5GB plans "include" tethering, but this is not the case, I still get owned if I use too much data on Chrome.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] urinsane:
Question for those on t-mobile..

I put a $40 refill card on my account last week, but am still getting the text message notices saying my month is up and I need to make a payment to ensure there is no break in service. Is this standard? My balance is showing as $40.

Maybe I need to poke around the settings page to change my notification settings.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BinkXDA:
Yes. T-Mobile is exceptionally annoying and spammy when it comes to this stuff. I tried to get them to send me less annoying text messages—particularly because I always have a balance in my account AND I’ve setup automatic payments—but I have been unsuccessful. If you are able to resolve this, please let me know.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] urinsane:
Good to know that I'm not alone. I mostly wanted to be sure they didn't cut off my service tomorrow. ;)

I am actually not planning to enroll in the monthly auto pay, so I think I will leave it be. I'm planning to buy refills online to avoid paying sales tax and to get the small discounts available. (Paid $39.60 for a $40 refill through callingmart)

If you refill through T-Mobile's site, do they charge tax?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BinkXDA:
There is a small tax that I pay every month—under 50 cents if I recall correctly.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] urinsane:
That's not bad. It does take a few minutes to buy through calling mart and I'm all about convenience.

I'd love to just buy a $100 refill and be done with it for a few months, but I'm still contemplating trying out straight talk on AT&T. Wish I could test it out for a few days without dropping $45 on the plan and $15 on a sim card.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dan in la:
AT&T Straight Talk Speed Cap?

I switched to Straight Talk/AT&T Sim card a couple of weeks ago, and my speed tests seem to be capped at 3 mbps down, 1mbps up. I don't mean to sound like I'm whining -- for $45 per month, that's a really good speed.

When I had AT&T postpaid, using the same phone, I would typically get 5-7 mbps down at my house. Now, I almost always get around 2700-3000kbps. Very, very rarely, it will go to 5 or 6 mbps. This is with att.mvno as my APN, and no proxy. (When I used the Straight Talk proxy, it wouldn't connect to the speed test server at all.)

Are others finding the same kind of issues? What about on other AT&T MVNOs? Any possible solutions, other than switching to T-Mo?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
So there's a difference between when they

charge your card

, and when they

charge your account

.

For example, my account (w/ T-Mo) rolls over to new minutes/data every 30 days (as most plans do). I have them charge my credit card 2 days early to ensure that there's payment. So because of that, you get 2 sets of notifications/texts about charges (kinda spammy). 1 set when your card is charged to put money on the account, and another set when they take the money and refill your minutes. Happens in the middle of the night so its not completely a big deal, but its easily solved by having it refill earlier.

So it goes like this:

Credit card -> $$ -> T-Mo account -> $$ -> Minutes refill -> paid.

I actually do recommend that you have it refill 1, 2, or 3 days early if you're doing auto-refill. If you choose not to refill, then your service will shut off at midnight on the 30th day, but they may not be able to charge the card and then refill the minutes until a few hours later.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jbeez:
I had that same issue with tmo mvno, if you see my previous post in this thread, once i took the port setting out of the apn, my speeds went up alot, 8mbps vs 3
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
I just deal with auto-refill. Its easiest, and I pay like 9% sales tax on $30.00, which is nothing for the convenience. Unfortunately you still get all of the warnings, even if you're on auto-pay, which doesn't make much sense. I guess it saves them from getting a bunch of Customer Support complaints when their service shuts off, as people are used to postpaid models where their service never shuts off and they have a few weeks to pay the bill.

So yes, they do charge sales tax. You don't pay any other fees AFAIK.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] IDtheTarget:
Straight Talk tethering question

Hi!

One of the reasons I went to Straight Talk was price, and I'm okay with 2GB/month (unstated limit). I even sent the company an email asking about the phantom 2GB limit and got a reply stating that there is no cap, but that if I tether I'll be immediately terminated.

I don't need to tether often, maybe once a month for a day or two. That's not enough for me to pay $50/month for a mobile data hotspot solution, I just want to tether. Hell, I'd probably stay under 100MB a day even with the tethering.

Has anybody gotten kicked off of Straight Talk for tethering? (I'm on an unlocked GSM GNex)

Thanks!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Seen a few accounts of people getting a scolding from Straight Talk when they use a lot of data (tethering or otherwise). They wag their finger at you a few times and if they want they'll kick you off for abusing the network (according to them).

As you said, just go gingerly when tethering and you should be fine.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] urinsane:
Good to hear T-Mobile is still working for you. How have you been doing minute wise? I'm just about to finish month 1 on the $30 plan and have found myself talking a lot less because I am worried about going over. Did you find a voip solution that is consistent enough for you, or are you just paying the overages?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
It's going pretty well actually. Loving how much I'm saving monthly and I've experienced the same speeds as my postpaid service.

The minutes aren't terrible, although I really don't like having "minute anxiety". I've chosen not to go with the VOIP route because its just not worth the hassle (it will never be as reliable as normal voice network). I've been taking and making calls as normal because there really is no need for this plan to change how I use the device. I take calls over GMail whenever I can (so whenever I'm at home) and just play it that way. I've been bumping up on 100 minutes every month though. I'm at 80/100 now with 3 days to go on my month.

I figure that theres no need to try and change the way I use it. If I pay a $10 overage one month because I made a few long calls that's okay with me. Better than paying $60 a month just to have unlimited minutes. Although there is something to be said for having that "security" of unlimited minutes. I'm just not sure I'm ready to give up my 5GB data cap yet. Moving to something like Straight Talk, I would get rid of "minute anxiety" and take up "megabyte anxiety" with a 2gb cap (especially on ST because they're so anal about it).

I'm going to be graduating in a few months, and will absolutely need more minutes. I keep telling myself that Straight Talk will be my next move if I can just keep my data in check, but at this point it's probably going to be staying on the $30 plan and paying per minute overages, or going to the $60 Simple Mobile plan for UL Talk/Text and a high data cap. I guess I can just try it out for a month. Can't hurt besides the SIM costs of Straight Talk.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dan in la:
Yeah, thanks for the suggestion. I had already taken out the proxy and port from my APN because if I don't, the speed test app won't connect at all. If I just have the proxy without a port, I don't get an internet connection.

Your post was actually what made me decide to post in the first place, because I was hoping someone would have a solution like that for AT&T.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] JCreazy:
I'm using straight talk now and I'm happy with it. In am considering switching to the T-Mobile plan once I purchase a nexus. I do use about 300 minutes a month but I'm sure talkatone can take care of that. The one thing I am having problems with is that Google won't port my number so I'm kind of stuck right now.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
I'd try using Talkatone regularly before assuming it can replace the mobile network minutes. Its not as smooth as they'd lead you to believe.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] JCreazy:
I'm doing some testing with t,mobile coverage in my area along with tests with talkatone and groove ip. If I do switch it will be in a few months.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
I would just recommend you try "living with" the VOIP solutions for a couple or a few weeks before you try and switch. My initial plan when going to the 100 minute T-Mo Prepaid plan was to do this and it just didn't work out. WAY too much trouble. You (and the people you call) quickly get frustrated when calls are inconsistent. I've pretty much dropped VOIP all together and only use my minutes and GMail GV calls.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] xur17:
The T-Mobile plan (I'm assuming you are talking about the 100minute, 5gb 4G plan) is honestly about the same price even if you don't use Talkatone. Extra minutes on the TMobile plan are $0.10 a minute, so if you used 300 minutes it would cost you $50. Just use talkatone on wifi, and you should be able to cut that down some.

---------- Post added at 01:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:03 PM ----------

I only use talkatone on wifi, and it has been pretty consistently good for me. Using it on 3/4g seems to be sporadic, and depends on your area. I gave up 3/4g voip usage and use it on wifi only - I've been pretty happy with the results, and have stayed under 100 cell minutes every month so far (4 months).
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zorachus:
Great thread, thank-you.

I plan to sell my Verizon Galaxy Nexus on Craigslist, and pick up the the new Nexus that Google has up in the Play Market. I am sick and tired of paying such high monthly bills to Verizon, **** them.

So how is Straight Talk in Chicago land ?

I use my phone for my business, maybe 1200-1500 minutes a month. But data I keep low, maybe 1.5gb - 2gb the most per month, never over 2gb.

Which pre paid company + plan would you recommend for me ? Looks like Straight Talk is the best ? Or that pre paid T-Mobile for like $60/month for unlimited minutes and 2gb cap ?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BrianDigital:
could the OP maybe add some apn setting in post, I am new to GSM and after reading his statement got really fired up to finally switch over.

I do have a domoco gnex and while tmobile 3g is @ 3-5 mbps which is so much fast than sprints 3g(and most times 4g) i would like to see it go up alot higher

I do live in an area with hspa+ coverage
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] xur17:
I would recommend Straight Talk in your case, since you use under 2gb of data. It's cheaper than the T-Mobile $60/month plan, and as a bonus you can choose between AT&T or T-Mobile depending on which is better in your area.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zorachus:
Thanks, not sure which one to go with ? I had T-Mobile like 3yrs ago, had pretty good coverage, ATT is not bad either here, but heard it sucks deep in the city and skyscrapers downtown ?

So I have the option for $45 per month unlimited on Straight Talk vs the $60 per month on T-Mobile for unlimited and 2gb at 4G speeds and after 2gb it drops off to Edge speed ?

But going on official T-Mobile plan is that more secure or better than ST ?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] xur17:
T-Mobile tends to be really great in cities, and not as great in between them. If you travel a lot, I would probably recommend AT&T, but otherwise I would probably vote for T-Mobile as they probably have better speeds in your area (just a guess though).

I wonder if you can switch sim cards after starting with Straight Talk, so you could try both, and see which works best.

The main advantage the T-Mobile plan has is that they won't ever shut you off for using too much like Straight Talk is known to do, so you wouldn't have to worry at all. If you use too much data on Straight Talk, they kick you off, but T-Mobile would just throttle your speeds.

I have been pretty happy with my TMobile Monthly4g plan. I don't travel much (maybe once or twice a year), so the extra cost is definitely not worth it to me, and speeds in my area are pretty good.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zorachus:
Thanks xur for the info, appreciated.

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans

I am looking at the $60 per month plan, and the $50 plan for the Wife, that is easily better than half the price of Verizon, my Wife and I could save well over $100 per month switching.

But how do I buy the SIM cards or activate it ?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] jbeez:
Tmo straighttalk seems the same as the tmo plan i just left. Except I'm not worried about my minutes, just don't put the port setting in your apn so your data isnt gimped. It seems att gimps your data.speeds regardless, probably choking the straight talk.users upstream if i had to guess
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] xur17:
Buy this: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Prepaid-SIM-Activation-Kit

And activate the sim cards for your phones here after you receive them.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
Just ask AT&T users in the area. It'll be the same unless you're out in the middle of nowhere, considering you'll get no roaming coverage.

If you're going to keep it under 2gb just go Straight Talk and save a few $$.

APNs aren't going to boost those speeds much. 3-5mbps is really normal. The APNs that load off of the SIM as "default" are usually the ones you need.

AT&T and T-Mobile are about the same for building penetration as they're both on pretty high frequencies. T-Mobile might do a little better because there are generally fewer users, but it really depends on the area of course.

Wouldn't say the T-Mobile plan is more "secure" than Straight Talk, but you do know that you'll never be kicked off the network for using too much data, they'll just slow you down to EDGE-ish speeds. But its $15 more.

But honestly, consider that for $60 at Simple Mobile you can get T-Mobile service (full HSPA+ speeds) w/ UL call, UL text, and like ~8gb data for the same price as 2gb on T-Mobile proper.

---------- Post added at 02:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 PM ----------

Look above for the right answer. You need a "prepaid activation kit". It costs like $0.99 and you get it in a week. Activate online too. Don't go into store.

The $50 plan is only 100mb at full speed, so only go there if your wife uses next to no data. Otherwise hop up to $60.

But as I said above, for $60 at T-Mobile, might as well go Simple Mobile and get 3x as much data for the same price. As far as I know there's no catch, the service between T-Mo Prepaid and Simple should be the same.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] digweed4me:
I am on this tmobile 4g prepaid plan(30dollars)with galaxyy nexus from google play and loving every minute of it.i consistently get 10 mbps down and 2mbps just loving it and i am stiil on sprint i plan to cancel and pay etf on end of my billing cycle. I use talkatone to call and receive through google voice.The thing with prepaid plan from tmobile is it doesnt support unconditional forwarding thats the only minus point . If they had support forwarding i can just forward my tmobile prepaid number to google voice number.I gave all my friends,family and credit cards company my google voice number so that i can receive my call and text through talkatone .
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BinkXDA:
Not sure what you mean here, but I have the same plan and all my calls are forwarded to voicemail unconditionally.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] martonikaj:
The only thing it doesn't have by default is T-Mobile missed calls forwarding to GV Voicemail. You can remedy this by calling and shutting off your T-Mobile Voicemail. All other call forwarding works fine.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] digweed4me:
You mean if someone calls your tmobile prepaid number then its forwarded to google voice ? I am not talking about native voice mail
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] digweed4me:
Just to be sure if someone called your tmobile number then its forwarded to your google voice number right if that so then i can receive call in talkatone.

Would u mind explaining me how to process?

Much appreciated
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BinkXDA:
No, I meant native voicemail—and since, pretty much, no one calls me on my T-Mobile number, this works. I only use Google Voice for international calls—everything else is done through my VoIP provider.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Cabal_:
Only if you go all-in on GV and use it for your 24/7 number. The problem then is that the number people are calling is no longer a mobile number, which will matter to some people/plans.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] thetrailofdead:
Porting prepaid number out

I'm about to sign up for the $30 plan, but I wasnt sure if i wanted to port my existing number to GV yet. I wanted to test it with my existing GV number to see how things went. If I port my postpaid tmobile number to my prepaid tmobile, will I be able to port that number out to GV and get another prepaid number? Or do I need to order another SIM?

Thanks
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BrianDigital:
Or when you cancel sprint, port your sprint number into google voice and no need for call forwarding

Look into talkatone setting you might be able to check an option that makes it work only on wifi. Groove ip has,this and can just imgine talkatone does too
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BrianDigital:
This is a good thread i was r reading though some posts and some people were actually upset about this....
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bobsbbq:
Yes it is a good thread, I have had my last of contracts. I lived in Asia for 8 years and never had a contract. I moved back 2 years ago and I have been in 2 contracts and all were bad. T-Mobile was the worst they put you on a new 2 year contract anytime you make any changes to your plan. They got my final bill screwed up and after I disputed it they said I had to wait until the next cycle before they could adjust it. In the mean time they turned me over to collections in only a matter of 4 weeks while the bill was still being corrected.

Never again I own my service now. Thank you to all the contributors of this thread.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] DOHCtor:
Good to see you come to the light lol. I been anti-contract for while now. Been using only prepaid since the release of the Nexus One.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] :
When you guys are throttled on the T-Mobile plans? What speeds are you getting?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
T-Mobile throttles to a 60kb/s cap. It pretty well sucks.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zorachus:
That's not bad, on Sprint that's their typical 3G speeds :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Cabal_:
And your latency still will be much lower than on Sprint 3G...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zorachus:
Cabal, how are you liking Straight Talk on your Nexus ?

I plan to to sell my Verizon Nexus this month, and pick up the GSM one on the Play Store. Debating going Straight Talk or T-Mobile pre-paid
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bobsbbq:
This is exactly what I did. I got a quick 300 for my VZW Nexus, it was on contract but I will have enough to pay ETF.

Then I got the GSM Nexus from google. I'm using Straight talk and so far it is working great. I also have a T-Mobile SIM card coming so I might try it out as well.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bagelicious:
I wish that was true. I'm on Sprint in the Raleigh, NC area and I just did 10 speedtests using 3G:

Ping	Download	Upload

340	ms	61.8	kB/s	2	kB/s

404	ms	28.1	kB/s	6.6	kB/s

383	ms	28.8	kB/s	3.6	kB/s

405	ms	55.5	kB/s	3.3	kB/s

459	ms	60.7	kB/s	3.5	kB/s

393	ms	9.5	kB/s	4	kB/s

391	ms	75.3	kB/s	3.1	kB/s

414	ms	74.3	kB/s	10.4	kB/s

439	ms	54.8	kB/s	3.5	kB/s

588	ms	34.2	kB/s	15.7	kB/s

421.6	ms	48.3	kB/s	5.57	kB/s

The bottom line is the average. I only topped your magic 60kB/s 4 out of 10 times, and honestly I was shocked it was that many. I usually get a lot in the 20s and 30s lately, so I'd consider this a good day. I should also point out that I had 5 or 6 speedtests break due to network communication issues. I presume that the speeds were so slow that it couldn't even complete.

I am definitely thinking about joining you guys in the GSM GNex month-to-month fanclub. I was with a friend over the weekend who has the TMo GS2 and his 4g speedtests were faster than my wifi speeds. Blew my mind.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] spencer88:
Been there, done that, ditched Sprint. I suggest you do the same. Nobody should have to go through that.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Zorachus:
LOL wow :rolleyes: I ditched Sprint too, how would you like their new Nexus, no LTE service yet, so you would be stuck on that crap 3G network, OUCH.

I am selling my Verizon Nexus this week or two, and getting the new GSM unlocked Nexus for Straight Talk, give the middle finger to the rapist U.S. carriers.

I hope Google sells the Nexus-Four on the Play Market the same way at launch, that would be great :) :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BrianDigital:
Been watching my data use age since heading this route I'm really surprised how little Pandora uses,
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] BrianDigital:
This is why Sprint is not throttling, imagine being on Sprint hitting 2gb and being throttled might s well turn off mobile data at that point
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bagelicious:
I had actually considered getting their new Nexus until I realized that LTE won't be here anytime soon. The only thing keeping me here right now is I get Wimax at work. At home its almost strictly a wifi device. I'm also trying to figure out what their ETF policy is. Online they said it can be up to $350 per line. I'm hoping they prorate it by 350/24 * #months remaining. I'd only have about $60. Do you guys have any tips for getting out of contract without ETF by any chance? Maybe loading a Verizon PRL and roaming all month long? lol