yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] xdp:
So the consensus from you guys seems to be that Talkatone has the best voice quality? When I tried Groove IP the other party heard me quickly and with good quality but I heard them with a noticeable delay and the tin can sound. Not good enough for most calls. If Talkatone performs respectably even on EDGE that would be pretty nice.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] krazykeyur:
Try it. It's free :D

Right now, I see no reason to buy GrooveIP.

Wifi Off + 2G Only + Talkatone combination seems to be working fine for me as far as call quality + battery life is considered.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
I think that under the right network conditions, GrooveIP has better voice quality than Talkatone. Talkatone's advantage is that it supports different codecs which use compression and other tricks to reduce the bandwidth requirement, thus allowing it to perform better on slower networks. GrooveIP works well for me since I only use it over Wifi.

To me, GrooveIP's integration with the native dialer (so I don't have to choose an app to place a call - I just dial it as I normally would) among a handful of other features make it well-worth the couple of bucks I paid for it. But as krazykeyur mentions, try them all out and see what works best for you.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Whyzor:
GrooveIP uses default Google Voice codec, which is not designed for narrowband networks, so is best suited for wifi or broadband (3G/4G). Talkatone uses their own servers and more modern & efficient codecs so can be used in bad network conditions (2G, high pings).

Groove IP has nice features such as dialer integration, echo cancellation settings, and even overrides cell phone ring. So if I have my cell network & wifi on, and a call comes in, if my cell rings (I'd have to swipe to answer), and I wait a second, the groove IP answer screen pops up over the cell ringer and I can answer with that, it's a tap instead of swipe. That's how I can make sure which line I'm answering.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] gamer83:
Ahh, that makes sense, thanks!

Next question. I've got everything working except incoming calls when on wifi. Outgoing calls on wifi work perfectly, incoming and outgoing calls on the mobile network work perfectly and display my google voice number, but calls while I'm on wifi just ring and go to my voicemail. any ideas on which settings could be causing this?

---------- Post added at 03:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:23 AM ----------

Never mind, I figured it out. You have to go to your Google Voice settings and select to forward calls to Google chat.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] krazykeyur:
After testing for a couple of days, I am not satisfied.

Calls through talkatone dont work proplerly on 4G/3G/2G

Calls through GrooveIP dont work properly on 4G/3G/2G

Since the only place where I have wifi is home (where I already have a home phone for calling purposes), I needed something that's more reliable when I'm out at work or on the road.. where there's a good chance I might not have 3G/4G coverage.. and am stuck with 2G. So I decided last night to go with voip.ms and CSipSimple.

I added the voip.ms DID ($1/month) under my Google Voice settings.. so anyone calling my Google Voice number will get routed to the voip.ms DID.. and I get the call through CSipSimple.

While calling out, I have two options:

(a) I can use phone dialer and Google+ will intercept the call and call me back on the voip.ms DID while connecting the person I am calling.

(2) I call directly from CSipSimple and the call is connected directly. In voip.ms user settings, there's an option to specify what you want to show up as Caller ID to the person you are calling.

In CSipSimple options, I have set it to only use the GSM codec (even though voip.ms supports GSM, G.729a and G.711U/PCMU codec). The reason was that G.711/PCMU is uncompressed and uses 64kbps data.. which might be not possible many times. While G.729a uses 8kbps and GSM uses 13kbps, from my own testing, I found GSM to sound much better than G.729a. Plus.. 13kbps is very doable even in areas where there is bad coverage. (Sampling is 8KHz in all three cases)

Using voip.ms is not free ($1/month charge for the phone number, 1 cent per minute for outgoing / incoming calls), but in my case, it's far more reliable than using GrooveIP/Talkatone and using Google's high bandwidth codecs for the calls.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
Very good info, thanks! I think I'll add this post to the OP as an alternative for folks who (like you) don't need to make calls over wifi but still want to use this plan.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] xdp:
Thanks for the info. How is the quality/latency with CSipSimple compared to Groove/Talkatone/normal cell calls?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Whyzor:
Good info, thanks. I wonder if the Android 2.3+ built-in SIP client would work with voip.ms. Or another app SIPDroid, which I found to be better than CSipSimple during my brief time testing it a while back.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] krazykeyur:
The Built-In Client does work! I just configured it and made a test echo call..Seems a tad better than csipsimple.. but who knows..maybe just be my brain without coffee!

I have attached screenshots of the config settings for voip.ms for the built-in ICS SIP client. Username is the 6 digit number voip.ms username. Authentication username is that same 6 digit number. I chose newyork.voip.ms but you can change that to one of these other servers based on your location :

Atlanta, GA: atlanta.voip.ms

Chicago, IL: chicago.voip.ms

Dallas, TX: dallas.voip.ms

Houston, TX: houston.voip.ms

Los Angeles, CA: losangeles.voip.ms

New York, NY: newyork.voip.ms

Seattle, WA: seattle.voip.ms

Tampa, FL: tampa.voip.ms

Montreal 2,QC: montreal2.voip.ms

Toronto 2, ON: toronto2.voip.ms

Montreal,QC: montreal.voip.ms

Toronto, ON: toronto.voip.ms

London, UK: london.voip.ms
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dipole:
How is voip.ms compared to IPKall.com? I use them and found it to be excellent and free.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
I believe a big difference is that ipkall only offers incoming calls - there's no outgoing service with them. The workaround is to take advantage of the Google Voice callback function - use an app (like Voice+) to submit a callback request to Google Voice. Your GV number will then call the number you specify (like the IPKall number), and will connect the call to your intended recipient once you answer that callback. I'm testing a bit of this with an old sipgate account I had forgotten about and it seems to be working well.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] krazykeyur:
Calling someone from my phone using native ICS SIP client and voip.ms works fine.. but I'm having trouble recieving calls with the setup. I'll have to investigate what the problem is.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] post-mortem:
Yes, please do.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] zAlbee:
[MENTION=4350126]tofutown[/MENTION]

Of course. You can sign up for it anytime. "New customer" just means new account. But porting your number effectively ends your current plan, so check to see if you have to pay any ETF penalties. I don't know anyone who ported their number from postpaid to this plan. Everyone on this plan should port to Google voice and just get a throwaway number with T-Mobile. Once you have your number on GV, you will never need to port it out again, even if you change carriers. Seriously.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Pkt_Lnt:
The primary account holder owns the number, so they will have to release it for you go get it active on a prepaid plan. You are going to have to work closely with them and TMo to keep from loosing that number to the pool, so contact them in advance and have a plan in mind. The hard part will be that the $30 plan is an Internet only activation normally. Read back through for examples of how others have been successful and Google existing number from monthly to prepay plan.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
I'd definitely like to see it :)

Thanks for covering this guys, good info here :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Ronaldo Forenucci:
Really disappointed in T-Mobile. I'm on StraightTalk AT&T right now, and get between 5-8Mbs Down, 1-2Mbs Up. I bought the $30 plan at Walmart, and finally inserted the SIM and activated yesterday. The APN self populated, and all the fields were correct when compared to T-Mo support page. I had full bars on the GNex and the -db and ASU were actually a little higher than AT&T. I got a whopping 0.6Mbs Down, 0.4 Up. I drove all over town, and in only one spot, saw 9Mbs Down.

My house is in the darkest green area they have on their map, and like I said, the -db and ASU were better. The funny thing is the 9Mbs was in an area where it dropped to 1-2 bars. Weirdness around here (SE Michigan). I even played around with the *#*#4636#*#* menu and tried some different settings, no joy. Since I did get 9Mbs in one spot, The APN and band settings were fine though. Oh well...would have been nice to save $15 a month more.

RF
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] noneone:
Sorry to hear that. NJ coast right now, noon on Wednesday. Tmo $30 plan, 13.6 mbs down (Galaxy S2), Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, 4G LTE, 7 mbs down. At my house 30 mins away? Similar for Tmo, but 3g for Verizon (1.5ish mbs down). Speeds def do vary on location.

Good luck!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ogp:
I'd agree with that. My co-worker who has AT&T contract almost always gets data speeds at half or less than I get with T-Mobile monthly 4g in Columbus, OH.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] zAlbee:
So I used up all 100 minutes this month with this plan, and i have a week to go. Does anyone know how to renew it early? I'm not seeing any such option on the website, mobile site, or the customer care number...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] whitedragonz83:
Not sure about renewing early, but just add money and pay 10cents/min. Cheaper than renewing early.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] mrazndead:
T-Mobile 30 bucks a month plan. 100 minutes. Free Vonage app. Free 3000 talk minutes. Win win all day. Eff you Verizon and att
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] kday88:
Native SIP Only Rings Once w/ Incoming Calls

I have the $30 100 minutes unlimited data plan for T-Mobile and use the native dialer SIP on my Nexus 4, but I'm having a problem with incoming calls -- maybe someone could help?

Outgoing calls using the native dialer (which is set up with my PBXes account), correctly use Internet calling, so I don't use any of my minutes (settings = port 5060, TCP, "Internet calling for all calls when data network is available", "receive incoming calls", and "always send keep-alive"). But when I receive an incoming call, it shows up on the screen as an Internet call, my ringtone rings once out loud, then goes silent (but doesn't drop the call), then after 10 or 15 seconds, it drops the call completely, and then maybe 1 second later, it rings again, only this time not as an Internet call but as a regular cell-network call. The person calling me can't detect any of this -- to them, the phone just rings and rings and then finally goes to my Google Voice voicemail. What am I doing wrong here? Are there settings at PBXes.org that I need to tweak? Or in Google Voice? I have GV set to ask every time I make a call -- that way, I don't use it when using native SIP on WiFi or 3G/4G, but do use it when I just have cell service and no data.

Basically, I'd very much prefer to use the native dialer, but I only have about 10 seconds or so (and only one ring to alert me) to answer an Internet call -- or else the incoming call becomes a cellular network call and I use my minutes.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] post-mortem:
Check your forwarding options in both GV settings and PBXes.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] tlipur:
thanks for this. is there a way to get this working in vmware? can you convert the ova file?

thankks
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] post-mortem:
That should be automatic when you import the file.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] vcast009:
I had the same issue with sipdroid and PBXes. The only way I could get sipdroid to ring multiple times at 10 second intervals was to only forward calls to Gtalk. Also, this change caused sipdroid to not detect a few incoming calls. I eventually moved on to groove IP.

Groove IP will ring multiple times at 10 second intervals with a 2 second break between each ring.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] tlipur:
i tried and it says i have to agree to the terms before import . i hit agree and it just repeats asking to agree... cant get past it. using vmware workstation 9
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] post-mortem:
If this doesn't work, then I'm out of ideas.

I don't actually use VMWare, so I can't help you with experience, only searching.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Requills:
This is very interesting...

I'm currently on VZW with unlimited data, and to upgrade to a new phone I would have to buy at full price (which is a ridiculous $600+). I may have to switch to this once I want a new phone..
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] noneone:
Me too ...

VZW unlimited .. $90 + $30 unlimited web + $30 hotspot = unlimited 4G data for $150.

TMO is $45 (with hotspot) for 5GB. 5GB is not enough for me some months, some months it is ... BUT ...

IF I can live without MMS and just go with goggle voice .... I could get TWO TMO $45 month plans, get 10 GB for $90, and just switch the sims halfway through the month or so when the first plan runs out of data.......
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] post-mortem:
T-Mobile has unlimited everything for $70/month on prepaid:

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] noneone:
yes but no hotspot, the $30 plan, for $15 more, you get hotspot. the $70 unlimited doesn't allow me to use internet on my notebook the few times a year I stay in a hotel
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] baiju2012:
The hotspot is available for up to 500 mb for $70 plan. More you have to buy. But with correct UA string setting, it should be good to tether without problem. Also, there must be a way to buy extra, if needed after the first 500 mb.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/individual-plans.aspx

Nexus IV
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] tlipur:
I read that couple days ago and no go. o well guess i gotta get another pc, good excuse to buy supermicro 5017A-EF

Thanks for the help though. hope you dont take down the vids from youtube anytime soon..
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] noneone:
According to a few Tmo sources (2 different customer service calls and two different store reps) you CAN NOT buy extra hotspot with the $70 PREPAID plan, the full plan with credit check you can buy extra.

BUT, $70 + extra for hotspot likely ends up being more expensive than just buying two $45 5gb plans with hotspot ...........
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] baiju2012:
This may be a hack. Somebody was mentioning it in this or the other $30 thread. That if you add $15 hotspot to the $30 plan midway, it resets the limit back to 5 GB. If this works you can have 10 GB @ $45 with the inconvenience of adding and dropping the $15 hotspot every 15 days. You can try that before jumping to the two SIM idea. Best of luck.

Nexus IV
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Mgamerz:
Not sure whats up with tasker. With gvoice, incoming notifications aren't silenced, so i get my phone vibrating which is super annoying to the other person on the line. So I made a profile for any call to silence the phone after 25 seconds. However, instead it just immediately silenced it. I have it flash text when its silencing, and when it rings, it entirely skips the wait command I have. I've restarted the device and made sure the settings were taking effect. When I press play, it acts properly... I don't know what's going on :/
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] parrothd:
Why are you paying extra for hot spot? Just use chrome or firefox and change your user agent to android.. :)
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] noneone:
Done, chrome with user agent set as android, still got tmo popup need to buy hotspot page when using Youtube. YMMV, but they blocked me with chrome. Thanks for the suggestion though!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] parrothd:
Did you clear your cache?.. :)

Strangely now that I've switched to the $30 usb tethering works without changing my user agent. However when I've been "caught" in the past I change my user agent string to a nexus 7 tablet, and the popup goes away...You may need to clear your cache and or reload it a few times for the block to be removed...

http://www.useragentstring.com/ testing...
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Ci-Fi:
I'm using GV, PBXes and CSipSimple and I'm able to make calls but when I receive a call and press the answer button the caller's picture enlarges, but it still says "incoming call" and it DOES NOT connect. I searched the forum and someone mentioned changing the router configuration, but I know that is not the issue because my brother's phone (Galaxy S i9000 with the exact same VoIP setup) can answer calls without a problem.

EDIT: When I'm using Sipdroid instead of CSipSimple, I'm also able to answer calls, but my phone doesn't ring.

Any suggestions for these 2 problems?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] post-mortem:
Try different nightly versions of CSipSimple. Try old ones, too.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] dvda69:
Sipdroid has been unable to make or receive calls today? I have the green notification light but it just won't connect of receive calls. Even deleted and recreated my pbxes account and still nothing.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Nephilim-Giant:
I hope you guys/gals don't mind me asking some questions, but I have a few:

1: How well is the sound quality suppose to be from this cSip app and the PBX method?

-The other person can't hear my voice clearly. It sounds a bit muffled at times... I can hear them 100% perfectly, but unfortunately they can't hear me that well :(

2: Is there suppose to be a 1.5-3.0 delay in voice? I don't know if that's normal. :confused:

3: This G.729 codec is apparently a good codec (I think?:confused:), but is this ONLY for people who have this virtual PBX system? Or does is this codec implemented to everyone I call?

4: I believe google voice only supports: PCMA, PCMU, G.722, GSM, iLBC, Speex. Out of these codecs, which one is the best for Wi-Fi calling and which one is the best for 3G T-mobile data service?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Pkt_Lnt:
Not to sound harsh, but this has all been discussed back and forth in great detail in the thread, and getting 3,4,5...10 people to have that exchange again to answer you will be difficult.

This is not a simple plug and play mod, it requires time, learning, and testing, and a bunch of reading, from here and other searches. You should invest the time to read this all first to answer most of what you ask. Each person's setup in unique, and for most of us, it changed and evolved as we learned in this thread. My setup is GV > voip.ms > CSipSimple; I do not use it for 3G because my 3G is poor due to the rural sparsely populated area where I live.

My cell coverage at home is very poor, nonexistent in the house, so this is great for me, and I bought the G.729 codec, plus I have a low latency mod, and have stayed with 4.1.2 because of it. I also have a Linksys router wtih Tomato software that is tuned for VoIP use.

Read the thread, try different setups and codecs to see if this works for you, maybe just paying a little more for minutes is easier for you; that was not a choice for me, since I wanted to talk in the house and not out on the second floor deck in the fog and rain and wind. :D
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
I think [MENTION=4403217]Pkt_Lnt[/MENTION] nailed it; unfortunately, VoIP on Android isn't (and can't be) a one-size-fits-all sort of thing. You'll have to experiment, tweak, test, experiment some more, and hopefully eventually figure out what works best for your needs. And as he mentioned, VoIP isn't for everyone. The best solution for you may actually be just spending a few extra bucks a month for some additional minutes.

My setup has evolved and changed greatly from when I first created this thread. As I experimented and evaluated my usage, I discovered that I wasn't typically coming anywhere close to using up my 100 minutes a month - in fact, I end most monthly cycles with 70 minutes (or more) remaining. With that in mind, I don't really need to use any VoIP solution. There are occasionally times when I'll need to use more minutes, and for those situations I'm currently using an Asterisk server on a (currently free) Amazon EC2 instance, with CSipSimple configured to only be used for outgoing calls while I'm on Wifi. I've found that this provides me with a combination of excellent performance and voice quality, minimal latency, lots of configurability (since I have direct control over how calls are handled within Asterisk, and also have some additional tools in place for recording calls, which is kind of handy), and impressive availability and stability. I like not having to worry about whether PBXes.org has changed something and broken my GV calling interface.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] xak944:
You can renew early (by paying $30 and resetting your renewal date) if you have used all 5GB and want more fast data right away. To do this, you must call a T-Mobile rep and tell them specifically that you want to renew early; I don't think you can do it yourself on the website. It also resets your minutes back to having 100 available, but obviously if you just want more minutes it's cheaper to pay $0.10/min.

On the odd heavy data month, I'm pretty okay with paying $60 for 10GB of data and 200 minutes. :D
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Nephilim-Giant:
refillmobi[dot]com does not have those great prices for T-mobile...Will those prices come back?

Any other websites you guys/gals use? :highfive:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] codesplice:
I wouldn't count on it. From what I've heard, t-mobile has cut back on the discounts they were giving to resellers. Do let me know if you find another option though!
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Mgamerz:
I use GrooveIP on WiFi with tasker set to automate switching to it and turning off cellular data. It turns it on every 2 hours to check for texts (sometimes I get important ones only via text) and it automatically logs me I to my universities wifi too. It also turns off GrooveIP when I lose work. Seems to work pretty well. Probably could be better but I am too lazy.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Nephilim-Giant:
$50 T-Mobile cards for $40.99 on ebay.. Almost too good to be true? It has 100% positive feed back too, which is quite interesting.

Anybody knows why they ask for your phone number?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Pkt_Lnt:
I've gotten them for $33-37, bought a bunch at once. As [MENTION=1036233]codesplice[/MENTION] stated, they are not discounted it seems, so becoming more rare. I'll need to find another discount source in about six months. ;)

They direct load to your phone to avoid fraud of getting a code to load to the phone not associated with the payment method used. It happens with stolen credit card of hacked Paypal accounts, so they have less risk when they load direct to your phone, and if you stole the credit card, your phone number is a tracking method.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Nephilim-Giant:
$33?!!? Wow! Impressive. Is $50 refills for $40 the new norm on eBay, or will the prices drop?
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Pkt_Lnt:
That was four months ago, prices seem to be going up. My guess is that since prepaid is growing stronger, that prices will go up as carriers look for another way to make more money. First we lost CallingMart, then RefillMobi, and the prices on eBay go up, I doubt we see a decrease, that is why I bought so many when they were less.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Nephilim-Giant:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't stacking up on those refills are a bit risky, no? Quite a few people state that some of these cheap deals are due to the fact that the sellers buy the refills by stolen credit cards.
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Pkt_Lnt:
Buyer beware. Shop smart. Exchange a few emails with reputable sellers, if they dodge your questions, beware; if they answer quickly and patiently, give them some trust. Check feedback and items sold for the seller.

I've gotten all mine from someone who has sold over a thousand and has a 100% rating, and I have bought six now. First one was $30 refill for $15 and I accepted the risks of loosing the cost of lunch. It went very well, second one for $30 was good, so I bumped to $50 and when it went well, so I bought three more. :cowboy:
[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Nephilim-Giant:
Awesome :) thanks for the info! :highfive: