yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[General Topics] Daps:
Thanks I'll read the thread there.

I think the Tmo plan at $30 is good deal for my son usage but seeing how I'm paying about $120-130 for my current ATT plan that has my brother on it I'm paying actually paying $160 now anyway. I'm thinking about going to the ATT new plan for three phones it would be $145 I believe with unlimited talk & text and 10G shared. We all have wifi at home,school & work so I'm not worried about data really.

He just got the Tmo# at Christmas so I don't think he's attached to the number but AT&T would have the better coverage.
[General Topics] tokuzumi:
You should be able to port your number from any carrier, to any other carrier. However, porting from one prepaid to another prepaid can lead to issues. You run a greater risk of losing your number than if you ported from t-mobile post paid, to at&t post paid. That's why I'm glad I ported to Google Voice. The only downside is actually using the Google Voice app. I wish the app was better organized. Once they integrate Hangouts in May, it's going to be rather seamless to use GV on my phone.
[General Topics] cbutt:
You should definitely be able to port. I've ported from post paid tmo to straight talk, from straight talk to prepaid tmo & from prepaid tmo back to straight talk for myself & my husband. ( the most difficult was porting from straight talk to prepaid to -just put my husband on the $30 plan- because straight talk is a cluster ***).
[General Topics] robstunner:
Im actually moving back to AT&T from the $30 plan. The $30 plan is great but:

1.) The new $100 +$15 per line is $18 a line more than T mobile's $30 plan however:

a.) Unlimited minutes

b.) Better indoor reception (in my experience)

c.) Less frequent dead zones

2.) I will save my ETFs I was going to have to eat (which would have otherwise paid for itself after month 5).

3.) Im "eligible" for the next upgrade, even though id rather just buy no commitment anyway.

I really do like the $30 T-Mobile plan, but for $18 a line more in my case, I think the larger network with unlimited minutes is worth it. Ill be going from $212 a month on 3 line @ 10GB to about $151 with the new plan, or about $48 a line plus tax and minus my 17% service discount.
[General Topics] tokuzumi:
Definitely sounds like AT&T is the way to go in your situation. Wife and I are always looking for ways to save $$$. We were paying $140/mo to Verizon for 2 lines a year ago. We switched to StraightTalk, and that went to $90/mo. Now, we are down to $75, since I switched to the t-mo $30/mo plan. The only carrier that gets signal at her work is AT&T. So, we are in the best situation for both of us.
[General Topics] robstunner:
Yea, certainly a case by case situation. Im in the outskirts thats considered to be Chicago suburbs, so sometimes im out in 2G land and dead zones tend to be more frequent in those places.
[General Topics] oOflyeyesOo:
I am going to have to jump off the 30/m plan. I always seem to use over 5gb with the amount of streaming and ingress I do. I thought before it just took it down to 3g, but now it is 2g. No fun at all in my area. May have to jump up the the 70/m plan and throw my credit union discount to get it a bit lower :'(

Anyone have ideas for other options, I am not worried about min, just data, I was doing calling over data.
[General Topics] wideasleep1:
Ive considered a monthly Sim swap for this...calls to both numbers go through Voice for transparency. Run out of data or minutes, swap sim, one is always waiting to be refreshed (90 days required to keep active). This monthly exercise saves $10/month over AYCE. (All you can eat)..unless you truly need more than 10G/ mo.
[General Topics] oOflyeyesOo:
I thought about that before but it slipped my mind. Probably what I will end up doing, did not know that it would last 90 days, the service and all? I may actually grab a freedompop hotspot for those extra little bits also.
[General Topics] kopower:
5 speed tests

Finally bought a T-mo sim for my N5. Did a speed test vs Verizon. I was surprised how consistantly faster T-Mo's network was than Verizon. Lowest download was 25Mb, and highest was 30 on Tmo. Verizon was 11Mb to 27Mb. Both upload speeds were around 12Mbps.
[General Topics] paperWastage:
i guess the reps stopped allowing you to reset the month (paying $30 again)?

if you talk more than 200 minutes, then no brainer, go for $70 postpaid + discount - fees ~ $70... for more benefits...

you can decide to stay at $60 for 2.5GB, then upgrade in the middle of the month (they prorate... which makes it smarter if you stay at 2.5GB until you hit the limit before upgrading to unlimited for the end of the month)

verizon might be (more) congested in your area due to legacy grandfathered in users using more data

t-mobile might just have more spectrum in your area too...

http://specmap.sequence-omega.net/

but of course, once you go into the suburbs, t-mobile goes to 2G/3G, while verizon stays at 3G/LTE
[General Topics] kopower:
Yeah, the real test is when I venture out of the city. I am one of those grandfathered unlimited users. Verizon is just to expensive. If T-mo is even remotely similar in their coverage, I'll be happy; especially if I can save $50/month.
[General Topics] Daps:
That's kind of where I'm at my AT&T plan along with the $30 Tmo plan is running me about $160 a month anyway so I may as well switch to the the AT&T plan. It may be a little cheaper and better coverage. I would be giving up my unlimited plan on AT&T but I'm not a big data hog and as posted earlier. I have access to wifi.
[General Topics] andy o:
Are you sure this would work? I remember having let my plan expire for a couple of days, then when I made the payment the 30 days started when the plan expired, not when I made the payment.
[General Topics] Caelrie:
I'm in Hawaii too and my t-mobile reception is great. 4 bars of LTE right now inside my steel skyscraper.
[General Topics] ski522:
Just saw this on Dealnews, Google Nexus 5 16GB T-Mobile Android Phone, Charger for $372 + free shipping...damn that's a hell of a price! Thought I'd pass it along for anyone looking for a sweet deal on N5 and planning on joining T-Mobile.

http://dealnews.com/Google-Nexus-5-16-GB-T-Mobile-Android-Phone-Charger-for-372-free-shipping/977121.html
[General Topics] tokuzumi:
While this is a good deal for the one sold in the T-Mobile stores, it makes me wonder why anyone would choose the T-Mobile one over the Play Store one, at least in the US? I guess maybe the ability to have it in your hand same day?
[General Topics] bozzykid:
Buying from T-Mobile allows you to pay for the phone in 24 monthly payments (with no interest) and be in the Jump program so you could upgrade early. Maybe not ideal for most of us, but some people like that flexibility.
[General Topics] ski522:
You realize the deal includes the WCP-400 wireless charger for free? That's a $60 charger based on Amazon's price. That's why I mention it's was a killer deal as a combo deal. If one could careless about a wireless charger, then I'd buy it on the Google Play site and save ~$20.
[General Topics] FuMMoD:
That's the wireless charger too. That's an awesome deal!
[General Topics] andy o:
It's an ok deal if you want to buy from t-mobile for some reason like the ones stated above, but price is not value. You can get better or equivalent chargers including the official Nexus one for much cheaper than $60. The reason that charger is expensive is that it's discontinued and when it was new there were still not many cheaper alternatives.
[General Topics] Ostrich Egg:
Went over 5 GB for the first time today, throttled to 0.06 Mbps. 200 Kbps I could manage, but this is unusable.
[General Topics] md1008:
The nexus 5 isn't a terrible deal on T-Mobile really only. $50 mark up. Plus you can finance the phone interest free. I didn't have $400(including tax) and I needed a phone now. Also availability can be an issue as well.
[General Topics] herosemblem:
The first 3 days of my throttle weren't too bad, and some things were usable.

Now, however, I'm throttled to 0.06 Mbps. Oh wells. Good thing my plan renews tomorrow.
[General Topics] CDKJudoka:
Just activated my T-Mobile and will use it as a back up to my Sprint service. Both are comparable for speed, but I get unlimited calls and text with Sprint. the 5GB of Data is nice.
[General Topics] ski522:
But I'm sure there's a $$ difference between the 2...hard to beat T-Mobile's $30 deal. I had a grandfathered deal with Virgin Mobile for $25 similar to T-Mobiles (only difference 300 minutes) but they don't offer the N5 which I really wanted, the $30 deal from T-Mobile was pretty much a no brainer. My only complaint with T-Mobile is they have more 2G then I would like which is painfully slow for today's smart phones. But when on LTE the phone screams data wise!
[General Topics] kopower:
I've been about 5 days on the T-Mo $30 plan, and so far so good. The coverage compared to my HTC Rezound on Verizon is about the same. I was actually getting better data coverage in a city where Verizon was struggling. I live about 10 miles from the Twin Cities, and I'd recommend T-Mobile to anybody questioning their coverage around the suburbs.
[General Topics] giftedvisionz:
Data Monitoring

I've had the plan for a few months now. I had noticed a gradual increase in my usage, even though it did not feel as if my habits have changed. There was a huge discrepancy between tmobiles data usage stats and the built-in stats so I downloaded My Data Manager. It seemed to pick up more information, but still was a lot lower than the TMobile totals. I remembered to check betterbatterystats, and that seemed to be the most accurate.

Is there any reason in particular that betterbatterystats is picking up this information more accurately? And is there a data monitoring app with this kind of accuracy that can log stats by the month? Betterbatterystats is great, but it only seems to monitor from boot.
[General Topics] pspod:
Any one want to help me jump on this plan? I'm an existing tmobile prepaid customer, but I want to switch over my phone number to a new account in order to get this plan. Is switching over the phone number possible? Also, all the Tmobile reps are telling me it's a walmart only deal, will I be able to activate it with a sim activation kit from, let's say, Best Buy? If there isn't another way, what's the cheapest approach to getting the plan without buying a phone?
[General Topics] wideasleep1:
Your questions have been answered many times. Activate a new SIM for this plan...use the prompts to port your existing TMO number to it, which will end your old plan.
[General Topics] pspod:
Ok, but does the sim activation kit have to come from walmart/online, or could it come from another source? The previous pages have a bunch of users flip flopping on whether a walmart purchase is necessary or not. I just want to know if could hop on over to Best Buy and buy an activation kit there that'll work with the plan.
[General Topics] charesa39:
See below

Actually, it wasn't as simple for me as it's been stated here before. I'm hoping it goes smoother for pspod. In theory, Activating a new SIM and porting your number online is simple. However, when I tried to port my number over, it was saying it wasn't available to port (never figured out why). I had to call Customer Service, and I think we all know how that goes. Called the first time, and the CSR said she could do it no problem, and to give it two hours. I made sure we were on the same page about the $30 100min/5GB plan, which we were.

Six hours later, nothing. Called again, that CSR said the SIM wasn't activated, and activated it. After I hung up, my phone was activated, but it was still on the $60 plan. I called again, and this third CSR was the worst out of all of them. Since that 2nd CSR activated the SIM without the activation code from the kit I got from T-Mobile's website, she was telling me I had to buy another SIM activation kit from Walmart. I actually lost my patience with her and asked to speak with her supervisor (aka "someone who knows what heck they're talking about"). FINALLY, the supervisor was able to do it for me. So my advice... Good luck, and hopefully you don't have to deal with the morons over the phone.

---------- Post added at 02:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 PM ----------

Check out my response above. Regarding the Walmart/Online deal, CSR will tell you it's only for Walmart, but on T-Mobile's own website, it states it's available if you get it from Walmart or T-Mobile's website. Long story short, my kit I got from T-Mobile's website worked just "fine".
[General Topics] tokuzumi:
In all honesty, it would be simpler to just port your number to google voice. Buy the sim from Wally world, and then you are activated on the $30/mo plan. This is what I did. It's nice to just get a sim from whatever provider you want, pop it in your phone, and then tell GV what number to forward your GV calls. The only part that sucks is using the GV app for text messages. Other than that, there really aren't any downsides. And since I'm using Talkatone for all my GV calls (VOIP), I don't have to worry about conditional call forwarding. Not sure what will happen after May 14th, when google shuts down XMPP service for SIP services.

And in all my dealings with T-Mobile customer service, I can hardly get them to fix my issue because they keep thanking me over and over again for using T-Mobile. It's almost comical. "Thank you for choosing this plan. Thank you for choosing T-Mobile. Thank you for being on the phone with me. Thank you...thank you....thank you"
[General Topics] wideasleep1:
ANY activation kit will work, buy the cheapest. Despite the issues mentioned after my last post, I have transferred over 6 lines, ALL TMO post and prepaid, 4 with old numbers ported, 2 by phone auto-prompt, the rest online at 'activtion' page, with no issues whatsoever. There are folks here who claim a CSR call is all it takes, while others give the story as above. I prefer to do things myself, and know it was done right.
[General Topics] ROADKING17:
The t-mobile 30 dollar plan is only from Walmart and only to new customers,so you can't transfer a prepaid number you would have to open a new line.
[General Topics] damon7620:
You are incorrect.

I ported my existing number that I have had for the past 10years to that plan twice so far with no questions asked.
[General Topics] ROADKING17:
I went over and over with them over the phone and every rep gave me back the same info
[General Topics] damon7620:
Idk I never had an issue at all.
[General Topics] ROADKING17:
Did you come from another pre paid account? Because that was the problem I was getting they kept telling it's only for new customers
[General Topics] lchiu7:
'

I think the whole area is very unclear.

Recently I purchased a SIM from a TMO store in a mall. I wanted to active the $30 plan and they said they could not do it in the store.

I ended up doing it on the phone with the CSR's. That was not easy since they initially said it was not available until I told them it's on their web site.

Once it was activated I ported over a number from Virgin Mobile (which was basically Sprint) and it all worked fine.
[General Topics] ROADKING17:
Yes but if you have a t-mobile prepaid plan already let's say 50 dollar plan you Can't transfer that number to a 30 dollar plan or change to that plan
[General Topics] wideasleep1:
Incorrect. I and many others have done it. The ONLY requirement to get this $30 plan: Activate a NEW SIM. You don't need to be a 'new customer', a Walmart SIM kit, etc. The plan exists as an option when you ACTIVATE A NEW SIM, either online at TMO/activate, or by phone prompts. The plan is/was not normally meant to be activated by their personnel (free activation), so they have their instructions to tell customers they cannot 'give' you that plan, that it's only available through Walmart. When activating this plan, one of the options (either by phone prompt or online) is an opportunity to port an existing number, and any existing number that can be ported, will be ported to the new SIM you're activating. I have ported ATT, and TMO post and pre-paid numbers to this plan. Simple as that.
[General Topics] lchiu7:
Don't know but from folks are saying, probably not. As others have said maybe the answer is to use GV and just port your number. Of course you are then faced with using the less than attractive Google Voice app for SMS and have no MMS.

And it can be confusing as occasionally I have sent SMS using Hangouts and so the recipient sees my TMO number rather than mh GV number.
[General Topics] tokuzumi:
In theory, hangouts should have gv integration in may, so MMS will be supported. You just have to suffer until then.
[General Topics] lchiu7:
Of course they are also dropping XMPP support for GV. That affects me in another way but having a decent SMS app for GV will be nice
[General Topics] charesa39:
Seems there's A LOT of misconception regarding switching to this plan from another T-Mobile plan. All I can say is that IT IS possible. You just need to do it all online. You can read my post on the last page (post #1316 on in this thread). The only reason I had an "issue" switching to this plan is because it was saying my number wasn't available for porting at all. I wasn't even able to get as far as picking the plan I wanted. Therefore, it was completely unrelated to the plan, and probably due to some technical issues on their website at the time or something like that. When I had to call, I gave the SIM kit activation code to the 1st rep, and she said it was showing up in her database, so she said she could sign me up for it. It just seemed too easy. The reason for my frustration was due to the incompetence of the CSRs over the phone. Eventually, I was able to sign up for the plan, and I haven't been happier. So if you can, I HIGHLY suggest doing it all online. I repeat, the only reason I had to call was because an entirely different issue that was not letting port my number at all, regardless of whatever plan I would've chosen.
[General Topics] Joshmccullough:
No, you can activate the $30 plan online, too. Had a customer service rep tell me that it was only available at WalMart, she was sadly mistaken.

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans

Look about mid-way down, on the left, it says that "This plan is only available for devices purchased from

Wal-Mart or devices activated on T-Mobile.com." You select it as part of the SIM activation process online.
[General Topics] slemon:
so far so good. I'm using it with Vonage and used like 5 mins from 100 min allowance during the period of 5 days. Too bad it doesn't work to route incoming calls to Vonage; I have to call back callers.
[General Topics] nerv8765:
What is the best app to make internet calls (that don't use minutes)? I'm fine with just being able to call out using wifi or cell data.
[General Topics] lchiu7:
Maybe Vonage? They have 3000 minutes free each month at the moment.
[General Topics] Ash359:
I'm using spare phone, it uses Google voice. However on May 15th Google voice will be blocking out these apps.

So I would be interested in knowing of an alternative too.

How much does Vonage cost?

Sent from my Jedi MasterX Note 2
[General Topics] Joshmccullough:
Vonage's app works well for me for just calling out; the app and calling out is free, if you want to receive calls with it you have to have a Vonage account and it costs $.
[General Topics] nerv8765:
That sounds like it could work, I'll try it. I just need an alternative in case I run out of minutes (which I do sometimes) Thanks :D
[General Topics] lchiu7:
You can setup a free number at callcentric.com and have a SIP account on your phone connect to that number. Then people can call that number and it will use no air time. The area codes for those numbers are in the New York area but if you want something more memorable you could setup a Google Voice number to forward to you Callcentric number which would ring on your phone.

I think when you setup a Vonage account you supposed to provide a number for the account. I haven't checked recently but that could be the number people see when you ring somebody via Vonage.
[General Topics] HarryCooter:
I switched from Verizon 2 months ago and have not regretted my decision once. I received a hand-me-down GS2 and put CM11 on it as soon as I could.

Recently ordered a nexus 5 and can't wait to have it in my hands. I do have one question tho. The GS2 uses a standard sized SIM card and the N5 uses a micro SIM. Will a T-Mobile store cut down my current SIM card for me for the N5? Will they charge to to do it?

Thanks
[General Topics] Fire Ball:
They'll give you a micro SIM for free. Or you can just cut it down yourself.
[General Topics] HarryCooter:
Even though I did not purchase the phone from them? Will they transfer the data off the new card?
[General Topics] Fire Ball:
Yes it doesn't matter where you purchased the phone as long as you're a T-Mobile customer. Data? People still store stuff on SIM cards???
[General Topics] HarryCooter:
Well I was with Verizon for as long as I can remember and I'm new to the gsm phones. I'm not sure what is kept on the card..
[General Topics] Fire Ball:
Nothing should be on it unless you tried to store some contacts on it. But I doubt you did that.
[General Topics] RainMotorsports:
Unless you told it not to your contacts are likely on the phone synced with your google account and if not thats probably best to switch to. Pretty sure at this point you kind of have to go out of your way now to do it as well. Storing just about anything user end wise on the sim has gone the way of the dodo.
[General Topics] fascinate:
I've been keeping up with the Olympics on my phone at work so I've almost reached the 5gb limit of 4G for the month. I'd like to continue to stream video for at least this coming week. Since I have a spare TMobile SIM card, can I just activate it with a new $30 prepaid plan? I realize it'll have a new phone number attached to it but I plan to just swap it in when needed. Will that work?
[General Topics] wideasleep1:
Yep. I do this. :)
[General Topics] herosemblem:
Does that mean you'll just... temporarily not receive important phone calls and the people who call you will receive your voicemail or a "not in service message"?
[General Topics] wideasleep1:
Well..in my case, my real number was ported to Vonage, which it is set to forward calls to both prepaid sim numbers regardless of which is swapped in.
[General Topics] herosemblem:
Ah, smart man, then ?
[General Topics] RainMotorsports:
Same deal for me my phone number is Google Voice and I just have all my numbers being forwarded.
[General Topics] Anderson2:
What is "mobile Hotspot usage"?

My T-Mobile app tells me I've used 33.6mb of my allotted 100mb. I don't know how that happened because I don't even know how to turn it on or off.

Can someone explain how I ended up using it? Is it automatic? What do I use it for?

Thanks.
[General Topics] HarryCooter:
I've been on this plan for a few months now using a SGS2 and have a nexus 5 on order thought the play store. They are apparently on backorder, so I went to a T-Mobile store to look into purchasing one from there but the chick with the clipboard said I could not buy one outright, even with cash in hand unless I attach it to a postpaid plan.

Anyone heard of this bs?
[General Topics] raymond4:
Same thing happened to me while I was in T-Mobile store.
[General Topics] charesa39:
Same thing happens to me. It'll randomly go up even though I had never tethered before. The highest it's currently at like 9.1MB used. The funny thing is, I don't even think the $30 plan includes the free 100MB of tethering that the other plans do. I tried to tether recently, and it would redirect me to T-Mobile's "upsell" page, not allowing me to fly connect to the WiFi Hotspot from my phone. I actually just did the trick that allows you to tether by editing the database file with an SQLite editor, and it works perfectly. Now, I can tether however much I want (or at least up to the 5GB "limit" on this plan).