yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 4 General] mikelee28:
I give my friends both numbers. I tell them that the gv is my home number and my tmobile number is my cell. They always call my home number and text my cell.
[Nexus 4 General] smanthrav:
What sort of speeds are necessary to make a call with groove IP? I've been using it since yesterday and I've had a couple of people complain that my voice was breaking. This was while I was sitting down still...speed test showed WiFi speed of 7 Mbps
[Nexus 4 General] bozzykid:
You will generally get higher speeds on +42 even if you aren't near the theoretical max.
[Nexus 4 General] Censura_Umbra:
Solution: friends don't let friends own iphones.

Lol jk.

But just tell them you have a specific number for MMS and group chats. Not that anyone uses those
[Nexus 4 General] sashusmom:
Very funny! No- really! Got a good chuckle:laugh:

I'm android, my hubby is iphone!:D
[Nexus 4 General] chancy319:
I have a question. If you switch to the $50 plan, can you switch back to the $30 plan anytime you wish? I was talking to a rep asking if I could switch to the $50 plan. She said yes but I won't be able to go back to the $30 plan. Is this true?
[Nexus 4 General] maigre:
My understanding is that you can't go back to the $30 unlimited data plan once you leave it.
[Nexus 4 General] TrevSo:
Yes that is true. The $30 plan is technically only for new activations.
[Nexus 4 General] Censura_Umbra:
Though it is possible to start a new Sim and number on the $30 plan then port your number to the new Sim
[Nexus 4 General] andy o:
I'm pretty sure I've received group texts from an iPhone 4s, which were delivered without problem just like a normal one to the GV app. I assume the iPhone is smart enough to just send the same text to all people separately.

On the same topic, can someone explain how mms would work for sending group messages?
[Nexus 4 General] hp420:
You can also pay the $20 fee to port your number to GV (if you haven't already) then get a new sim card & phone number. Tmo gives sim cards out for free. That's technically a new activation. The first thing I'll do when I get my N4 is port my number to GV so I don't ever have to give a new one out unless I need to for some reason. Then if I ever need to get back to the $30 plan after upgrading I can just add the new phone number to my GV and I'm all set!
[Nexus 4 General] Censura_Umbra:
I did the same thing. This way I can easily switch carriers whenever I want
[Nexus 4 General] bozzykid:
No, group texts on the iPhone (and now on Jelly Bean) are sent as MMS not as separate texts. It does this so all participants can be grouped into a single conversation thread in the messaging app. And as with any MMS (picture or group message), you will not be notified on GV. The only exception is if the sender is using Sprint, you will get an email notification.

Until GV has support for MMS, I just don't see how I could use it as I get to many group texts and picture messages.
[Nexus 4 General] andy o:
Thanks, what I had was regular multi-contact sms sent to me, but I couldn't see the other recipients. Apparently the group mms feature has been out for a while now since iOS5, but from what I can see it hasn't gained traction, and there are some problems that discourage people from using them (giving out your contact info to the others, and being unable to unsubscribe from the replies). Nowadays with any of these phones there is a plethora of apps that do it much better. It would be different if dumbphones also did this, but we're talking iOS5+ and JB phones, so Whatsapp or Viber or whatever is most likely being used already.
[Nexus 4 General] tmobilenoob:
Could you guys go into more detail about this? I have no idea how Google Voice works and how I can do that.

So what you're doing is basically buying your own phone number when you pay that fee to port it to Google Voice?

Is it a one time $20 fee or is it a subscription?

How does it work after you port your number over? Do you tell T-Mobile to close your account, or do you just activate your separate SIM and have them activate it?

I ask because even though this T-Mobile $30 plan is good, I may switch to different carriers depending on where I am in the country.

I would appreciate any info, thanks
[Nexus 4 General] Mr Ian B:
Keep in mind, once you port your number to google, you won't be able to port it back out.

Ian B
[Nexus 4 General] milan03:
HSPA+21 capable phones means that their radio can achieve 21mbps

theoretical

downlink speeds. That means under the absolute perfect

real world

conditions, you may squeeze 19mbps due to the overhead. Most of the time they max out at about 14mbps because 64QAM isn't easily accessible in most situations.

On the other hand, LTE for instance is advertised by the actual real world maximums, no the theoretical maximums.
[Nexus 4 General] ziddey:
lies :rolleyes:
[Nexus 4 General] uToTMeH8:
Yes you can
[Nexus 4 General] Mr Ian B:
Just saying. My info came from a vm I left and was answered by Jerry hillinbrant who is a moderator at androidcentral.com.

Ian B
[Nexus 4 General] xor_mind:
Sup guys, I went to the t-mobile website today to do a cost comparison between the lowest possible 2 - year contract plan with subsidized phone and a google play unlocked phone + this $30 a month prepaid plan and I must say, I love this plan. Check out the attached image.

The 2 year contract nexus is essentially $50 + a $35 activation fee, but you need a "classic plan" + a web service to get the subsidized costs. If I did all the math right, we have the attached graph. At around 7 months the costs for each plan are the same, but each month afterwards you're stuck with twice the monthly costs, and you're locked into it for another 17 months. It's obvious t-mobile did these calculations too, and they try and distract us with the low initial cost.
[Nexus 4 General] errorcod3:
So you compared it to the $70 classic plan? 500 mins, unlimited text, unlimited data (2GB 4G). Did you calculate monthly tax and fees?
[Nexus 4 General] bozzykid:
I've done it so your info is wrong. And a writing for a tech site doesn't give you magical knowledge of how GV works.
[Nexus 4 General] Mr Ian B:
Thanks and good to know, that was the only reason I did not port to GV after he gave me the information. I just did not want my 20 year old phone number to be locked up by google.

Ian B

Can you give me the steps to port out from GV?
[Nexus 4 General] aaronrw:
T mobile is stepping it up I went and activated a SIM the other day, no activation fee, no charge for the SIM card. 50% off an accessory of my choice. WOW> Sprint should take some notes lol. BTW if you are considering the pre-paid optoin, BEWARE! The rep I spoke to told me that if you go that route, there's NO ROAMING COVERAGE. if you go on contract (what I did) you roam on at&t. That's the REAL diiference. No data throttles however until your limit is reached of course. I went the classic plan route...68$ a month is awesome for the coverage I'm getting. Data speeds are through the ROOF, averaging 10 to 14 MBPS in my town, Abilene,Texas.
[Nexus 4 General] kristoff125:
https://www.google.com/voice/unlock

Log in, unlock your number.
[Nexus 4 General] Eric-1987:
Those aren't data speeds through the roof...
[Nexus 4 General] SWOLEGASM:
He he! they are through the roof if you compare them to any other HSDPA+ service from the other carriers. Specifically at&t ಠ_ಠ But yeah, nothing compared to LTE yet.
[Nexus 4 General] Mr Ian B:
URL not found when I click on it?
[Nexus 4 General] thebryceee:
Especially compared to Sprint's 3G. I average between 15-25 Mbps in Vegas in a good coverage area.

Sent from my Nexus 4
[Nexus 4 General] PacifistRiot:
Alternatives to CallingMart?

Since CallingMart.com has ended their discounts for tmobile, are there any alternatives that are still offering some discounts?

I know that when Virgin Mobile dropped their discounts, there were alternatives that continued to offer them.
[Nexus 4 General] revamper:
What do you mean? Coupon codes still worked for me last week.
[Nexus 4 General] bozzykid:
T-mobile no longer provides discounts to wholesalers so nobody including CallingMart can afford to sell them at a discount anymore. CallingMart honored the coupon codes until they recently expired but there will no longer be coupon codes for T-mobile cards through them.

Unfortunately, unless you find some still discounted on eBay, you will be out of luck in the future.
[Nexus 4 General] swaggerwocky:
Has anyone successfully tethered while using OpenVPN or PPTPD? I'm able to access the internet using both protocols just fine on my Nexus 4, but the tethered device is not able to (tried wifi hotspot and bluetooth). Some searching brought up iptables routing suggestions but they did not help.
[Nexus 4 General] wideasleep1:
Wally World.
[Nexus 4 General] smanthrav:
Alright, I've been using the 30$ plan for a couple of days now and making phone calls through VoIP. People have been complaining that my voice is breaking. I've tried GrooveIP, Viber and Vonage and it hasnt made any difference!

Speed test shows ~10 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up. Is there something wrong with the apps Im using to make calls? Because these dats speeds ideally should be enough. I'm considering switching to a 60$ plan or moving to ST if this problem has no solution.

Any thoughts on this would be highly appreciated!:(
[Nexus 4 General] ziddey:
I've never tried Viber, but imagine it uses a packet loss/jitter tolerant codec. Vonage definitely does, and I'm surprised you're experiencing issues with that. Bandwidth isn't the concern usually-- it's packet loss and jitter you need to be worried about. Is this over HSPA or wifi? Grooveip is not usually a good option, considering it interfaces directly with google talk, and therefore you're limited to alaw/ulaw.

I've been using sipdroid with gsm (or speex) codec and haven't had any complaints on the N4.
[Nexus 4 General] smanthrav:
Thanks I'll give SIPdroid a try. And I've tried using the others on HSPA and wifi-neither worked. lets hope this does!
[Nexus 4 General] xor_mind:
The plan for the two year contract was $60 bucks a month. Classic 500 Minute—Talk ($40) + Unlimited - Plus data ($20) so, sixty a month. I did not factor in monthly taxes and fees, I'm not sure how much that would add to the monthly bill for the two year contract.
[Nexus 4 General] chancy319:
Try Skype. After using Groove, Talkatone and other Google Voice variants, Skype seems to be the best with voice quality.
[Nexus 4 General] errorcod3:
I think it would add a considerable amount to the contract plan. Also consider it is possible to purchase $30 prepaid cards without taxes (calling mart) or monthly fees, such as 911 among other common monthly fees.
[Nexus 4 General] acegolfer:
Skype offers excellent quality but far from the best. You should try other methods. I have compared 12 different VoIP in my signature.
[Nexus 4 General] errorcod3:
The cheapest classic plan I'm seeing with data totals $69.99.
[Nexus 4 General] Mr Ian B:
Was going to get refill card from callingmart.com and it appears they no longer will be giving discounts for Tmobile. If you know somewhere still does, please post.

Tia,

Ian B
[Nexus 4 General] bozzykid:
T-mobile changed their pricing for all resellers. So it will affect everyone who sells T-mobile refill cards.
[Nexus 4 General] whahn1983:
I had the same issues, already switched to ST. I heard Skype might be better if you are willing to pay $3.99 more for unlimited Skype calling. If you try it let me know how it works out. Too much hassle to switch back for nothing lol.
[Nexus 4 General] RayLancer:
I'm probably jumping on this bandwagon. I'm currently on Sprint and I've been ok with them. I've been stuck mostly on 3G while working, but at home I get 4G reception. Speed is pretty meh on 3G. I'm getting like 640kbps Down and 512kbps up on 3G, not sure what on 4G since Speedtest keeps crashing on my phone.

My friends in Sacramento seems to tell me T-Mobile is fine in my area, but I'm still not so certain. But this deal seems tempting. I used to be really big on unlimited data, and for the first year I've been using about 6-8GB a month, but recently it's been about 3-4GB a month. I text a lot more on my phone and I average like 10-15 minutes of talk time a month.
[Nexus 4 General] wideasleep1:
I think it's $2.99/mo...and if you buy a year, it's another 15% off. For a no-hassle VOIP solution, across all your Android devices, it's hard to beat, imo.

---------- Post added at 06:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:07 PM ----------

Sac and outlying areas are well-covered, and the only issue (indoor penetration) should be resolved with LTE. A friend of mine in Davis is getting a TMO LTE antenna installed in his back yard...we'll be testing for it to go live in a couple weeks. :)
[Nexus 4 General] raiderep:
Really? LTE is coming soon huh? I switched from sprint four months ago and T-Mobile has been very good to me. Davis isn't that far so I'm assuming sac area can't be too far off either then :)

Sent from my Nexus 7
[Nexus 4 General] stab244:
Whoa what. Davis. LTE. Is it compatible with the Nexus 4? I am very intrigued now and surprised by how many people own this phone in this area.
[Nexus 4 General] wideasleep1:
It better be...I talked him out of his iPhone on ATT for an N4 on TMO...we were round 1'ers and almost as soon as we got them, he got a notification in his mailbox a TMO tower was slated for City of Davis Corporation Yard and would be visible in his back yard. TMO and the City doing their due diligence for the neighborhood, in a town known for nimbyism. Naturally, we're stoked..and will be following it very closely. :)
[Nexus 4 General] expertzero1:
I'd go on T-Mobile if I could
[Nexus 4 General] Noobie Boobie:
Are you sure you want to go for T-Mobile? I recently read here that they were the most complained about network of 2012! Personally I wouldn't.
[Nexus 4 General] eservant:
That article refers to t-mobile uk.
[Nexus 4 General] tanyacruz:
Hello, couple of questions. So after you spent 5GB, then you'll get a slower speed connection or no data connection at all? Second, say, the $30 plan expired and you don't want it for the next week or month, are you going to lose your network connection or load up funds since its prepaid and continue pre paid services? Thanks.
[Nexus 4 General] bozzykid:
After 5gb, you will be throttled to Edge type speeds no matter if you are connected to HSPA+ or not.

Once your minutes or up, you can't make or receive phone calls until you add money to your account. After 100 minutes, you are charged .10/minute. What I do is always keep around 5-10 bucks on my account so I don't have to worry if I run over.

Also, if you want, you can restart your monthly plan at anytime if you want. But I don't see the need when you can just add money to your account and pay per minute for the rest of the month.
[Nexus 4 General] graffixnyc:
After the 5GB you are throttled to 2G speeds
[Nexus 4 General] n2d551:
I believe that any sim unused 4 30-60 days is inactivated though
[Nexus 4 General] sashusmom:
If there is any balance left in the account, the fallow 4g monthly after 60-90 days will be switched to a regular PAYG account, and you can't switch back to the 4g monthly plan. You would have to get a new sim and port your number from one account to the other. A lot of hassle. An alternative is to suspend your account thru proper tmobile channels if you will not be using it for awhile.
[Nexus 4 General] jgreemo:
100 minutes question...

Hi guys, I've been using the $30 100 minute plan for a few months now and it's the first time I've gone over the limit. I keep a healthy balance on my account but I still get the T-Mobile message informing me every time I make a call that this call will cost me .10c a minute. Since calling T-Mo is a chore, anyone figure out how to turn this off? Trying to avoid calling customer service but that message, each and every time I call, is a major drag.

Thanks!
[Nexus 4 General] thebryceee:
I just went over and never got that message :/

Sent from my Nexus 4
[Nexus 4 General] sashusmom:
I also went over by about 100 minutes and only got that message once or twice. Then it just make the calls.
[Nexus 4 General] raiderep:
Do you have a T-Mobile app installed? Try turning off notifications maybe. I too have never seen this message in four months of service and I've gone over every time. Not anymore though im using groove ip

Sent from my Nexus 4
[Nexus 4 General] IRX120:
I have noticed in the past that my 4g is throttled down exactly when 5gb of data is used. Not that all is 4g, though.

Ex.

I used 2gb of edge (streamed a lot of Pandora) then after 3gb of 4g my speeds were cut. I thought it said 5gb of 4g

I have also noticed a lot of dropouts on my n4 since the upgrafe
[Nexus 4 General] gagdude:
I believe it says 5gb of data UP TO 4G speeds, then throttled
[Nexus 4 General] whahn1983:
$2.99 gives you unlimited outgoing calling with no number for people to call you. It's an additional $12.05 (billed for 3 months at a time) for an incoming number that you can forward your GV calls to. Still cheaper than ST if it works. I went ahead and paid to try it. Works great at home but the true test is calling in the car on my way to work tomorrow.
[Nexus 4 General] acegolfer:
Would love to hear your experience over 3g.

Here's my conjecture and I hope I'm wrong.

Ppl claim excellent call quality with Skype because most likely it's a P2P call. In other words, they are calling another Skype user, where it's a direct route between the 2 phones.

But once you use Skype to call (or receive) a regular phone number, then your call goes through PSTN just like any other regular phone calls. This will degrade the call quality and will add latency. Most VOIP methods with excellent call quality don't involve PSTN. Examples are Skype, Viber, Vonage, gTalk. These all claim HD voice because they can use better codecs than PSTN's PCMU.

If Skype call-in, call-out over 3g can achieve the same call quality as P2P, I'd love to know.
[Nexus 4 General] clninja:
It will throttle you at 5gb regardless of which data speed you used to get there ( unless your using WiFi of course.. WiFi won't ever count against you )
[Nexus 4 General] kcchen:
This post caught my eye. So if I sign up for the $30 minute plan and I don't add money for 90 days after activation, they switch me to a normal plan with a contract?

Sorry new to this and trying to get everything in order before I activate the SIM.

Thanks in advance!
[Nexus 4 General] whahn1983:
So far it is good. Made several calls today both stationary and driving. The stationary calls are as expected very good quality. My friends on the receiving side said the quality was the best out of my previous attempts with Vonage and various SIP options and codecs. While driving the quality remained good until my usual " tower transition" points. While transitioning towers the sound would go intermittent to no sound but the call remained connected and picked right back up with good quality very quickly (10 sec), which is much better than Vonage which would sometimes disconnect completely and/or take longer to recover.
[Nexus 4 General] kingwaffle:
Anyone else having issues with Google Voice and Voicemail? I know what you're thinking...it doesn't work unless you go "all in" with Google Voice since T-Mo prepaid doesn't have conditional call forwarding.

But I did that.

And callers still occasionally find themselves at the T-Mobile voicemail system. They are instructed to "dial a number for the mailbox you want to leave a voicemail for".

Clearly, the "all-in" option isn't working. Well, it works, but not consistently. I get voicemails from time to time on GV, but I also get complaints here and there from users who say they get the "dial a number" message.

Anyone know of a solution? (aside from porting my number BACK to T-Mobile) I know for a FACT people aren't calling my T-Mo number, since I haven't given it out. I don't even have it memorized yet since I only use it to login to the T-Mo site to pay my bill.
[Nexus 4 General] rich2k4:
How do you guys deal with MMS and Iphone users who use iMessage? Or is is not a concern?
[Nexus 4 General] RayLancer:
Just bought my SIM card... and now to go order the Nexus 4. Goodbye Sprint.
[Nexus 4 General] kingwaffle:
I figured out my issue. The incompetent T-Mobile person I talked with the first time to have my T-Mo voicemail disabled apparently didn't do it properly. Works now.
[Nexus 4 General] bozzykid:
iMessage is not a concern since it sends messages as SMS from iPhones when the recipient doesn't have iMessage enabled. As for MMS, you will just not receive them or get notification.
[Nexus 4 General] bisache:
I have a few questions/confirmations before my wife and I go this route. I am currently on a family plan through t-mobile that has just expired, do we just port over our numbers first, then get the prepaid sims when the numbers get ported over, and then cancel our t-mobile family plan? Does GV work over 3g/4g data or does it only work over wifi? Is the voip apps for wifi only use or does it also work with data? Does mms go off your GV or the t-mobile plan? Is the only time you use the 100 min is when you have no data or wifi and do you use a separate dialer for t-mobile mins and the GV mins? I know theres a lot here but Just want to confirm some things before I go all in.

Thanks
[Nexus 4 General] keijikage:
You will get a lot of trouble porting from post paid to pre-paid -technically the $30/mo deal is new activations only

if you port your current number out to Google Voice it immediately cancels the service the phone number is tied to

do not cancel service before porting

you can port out and port back in if you want your current phone number to be tied to the $30 plan. It may not be worth the hassle since you can set up google voice to automatically forward calls to a new t-mobile number.

Google voice uses your minutes unless you use a separate dialer like talkatone, groove ip, sipdroid, etc. Google voice is technically a call forwarding service and not necessarily a straight voip service.. These apps take advantage of the fact that you can forward a call to google talk.

If you use a separate app to dial from your google voice number, it will work over 3g/hspa+, but quality depends a lot on the compression of the audio stream as well as the quality of your service - this may or may not be good enough for you

MMS does not work with GV (although you can set it up to e-mail you when you receive one). It will work with your pre-paid plan.

I find I use my 100 minutes for short calls when it is not worth the hassle to fire up talkatone. Longer calls I will use my GV number - typically only the people I talk to a lot will have this number anyway.

If you talk a lot, I would suggest straight talk(although they have soft data caps!). I basically only call to tell my SO that i'm leaving work, but lately I have taken to the habit of just firing up google+ and doing video chats instead because they are basically free.

Ultimately, the $30 plan is not for everyone, you just have to evaluate what service you and your wife will need...
[Nexus 4 General] wideasleep1:
Don't forget there are also PTT/Walkie-talkie apps that use data only...when I need to chat with SO about work, groceries,etc. we just Heytell one-another...and I have a few friends on Heytell too, so it sees a lot more use than my phone minutes. ;)