yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[General Topics] nrvate:
All set up. Yay!

This details the notable points of my experience...

1) EFF the T-mobile store. Don't bother. They'll make you wait, try to sell you a phone, try to con you into activating a high-dollar unlimited plan on the spot, even when you walk in and state "I just need a uSim starter kit, please" -- I have zero patience for this. Die in a fire, k thanx bye.

2) Both Walmart and Target carry T-mobile uSim kits. Target doesn't always have them on the shelf, but they probably have a few locked up, just ask one of their mobile monkeys who will quickly sell it to you. I experienced no BS here.

3) Activate online via https://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/ActivateCodes.aspx

4) DOB is for "security purposes" - IE they'll ask you for it if you call in. Pick a date in your favorite starsign, June 9th 1969 if you're a hornball, etc. :silly:

5) It asks for a credit card or refill card as payment. I didn't try the refill card -- I used a Visa card instead. Your local grocery store or quickie mart likely has prepaid visa cards. Get one that's not reloadable so you don't need a bunch of information to activate it.

6) My initial attempt at activation led to a "we're still working on your activation, we'll text you when we're done" page after selecting the plan. 3 hours later, nothing. So I went through the voice-response activation system for kicks. After feeding it my area code, it advised me there are no numbers available. I picked another area code, and it was happy, however when it got to plan selection, the 30/month unlimited data plan of course wasn't an option as this is "web only". So I went back through the web-based process, fed it the alternate area code and it sailed right through. So if you get stuck at the "we're still working on your activation", see if selecting a different area code for your new number helps. I use Google Voice for PSTN and 3rd party SIP for VOIP, so I never have to deal with porting, and the actual number of any of my devices is irrelevant.

Once I got through the web activation and provided payment, the phone was active by the time I dialed the test call -- Voice and data both working. Nice!
[General Topics] unknown1205:
hmm... looks like checking your voicemail takes away from your minutes? the stupid annoying notification kept popping up so i clicked it to set up my voicemail which i never use. i just wanted to get rid of the notification. now i'm 3 minutes in the hole.
[General Topics] cutterjohn:
Have this plan originally with my n4. Swapped sim card to n5 and no probs so far... only had it since 6p EST, and it's been charging for at least the last 40m, but I did update everything(WiFi) and then a few min "LTE" and it was working... didn't try and calls/messaging though, just data so far...

[EDIT]

Oh yeah, was gonna try to pick up a second uSIM for the n4(pretty much looking to get the cheapest lotta voice/unlimited messaging plan/don't care about data), but it's just such a PITA at times to order a sim from T-mo, so I gave up....

[/EDIT]
[General Topics] KamaloPSU:
Can you use Google Voice and just use data?
[General Topics] unknown1205:
yea i'm sure you can but when i initially set up the voicemail due to the drop down notification, it went thru tmobile. i have google voice set up on my device now.
[General Topics] ms0chez:
For those that already gotten their Nexus 5, did you set your APN setting or did you use the default settings that came with the phone after popping the sim.
[General Topics] adrman:
I cut down the sim from my gnex this am and popped it in to the N5. The correct apn was in settings when I checked.
[General Topics] donwhall70:
I've been using this plan for quite awhile. I manage it by keeping $120 on the account at all times while having my card dinged $30 + any extra charges per month. This way I always have money there and if something bad happens I have a few months buffer to keep me going.
[General Topics] secondclaw:
I went to T-Mobile store, had them cut my SIM to a micro, popped it in, and got LTE once phone booted. I haven't touched APN or any other settings.
[General Topics] ms0chez:
Cool. Thanks.
[General Topics] marinersontop1:
Seconded. Good lord it was an effort to realize the area code was my only issue. Woman on the phone offered me an Illinois area code. I live in NYC. Ended up selecting Albany as my new home base.

The CSRs also are clearly untrained. She told me the $30 plan is only available at Walmart. I explained I live nowhere near the Wally World. She put me on hold to check with her superior and after a nice ten minutes wasted sent me back to the interwebs for setup.
[General Topics] Lockeskidney:
I'm getting super strange LTE results. can someone explain this

HSPA

LTE
[General Topics] didau:
Vonage

Does anyone having problem with Vonage app? it keep force close every time I use it via cell data, it OK with wifi :confused:

I never have this problem before on N4.

NVM...found a solution.
[General Topics] nrvate:
Voicemail does take minutes. This is pretty normal, haven't had a carrier that didn't work like this. yet.

Google Voice uses minutes too, unless they've changed it to pure IP without my knowledge, which I am sure would have received much fanfare. Google Voice isn't VOIP, you could think of it as a fancy PBX system. Note when you make a Google Voice call it makes a standard cellular call to a Google Voice POP number which forwards you to the final called number after changing the calling number ("caller ID")

They really should resolve this -- I'm sure it's bit a lot of people and if I was feeling less patient (and cheap) today I'd have gone with my temptation just to drop by the AT&T store and trade my SIM for a uSim. But I knew I'd figure it out and it was worth the wait at over $40/month less $$!

It's hard to say exactly, lots of variables, but two things that top my mind:

- The LTE channel in your cell is heavily loaded with data-hungry users

or

- Your screenshot shows higher HSPA signal strength, your area has an HSPA-only tower closer than an LTE tower, so you get better signal-to-noise on HSPA, leading to higher data rates.

I don't see a huge difference between HSPA and LTE here. I too see higher signal strengths in HSPA mode. It's random (network usage conditions, probably) which is going to outperform here, but LTE does consistently have lower latency.

It's worth remembering T-Mobile operates DC-HSPA (dual cell) which gets 42mbit air speed -- LTE provides 100mbit. Since most the power users are going to be on LTE, LTE is almost sure to have a higher usage demand. So to me it makes sense they'll be pretty close. This is exactly what I had hoped for with T-mobile -- Both DC-HSPA and LTE, both fast. Both are faster than pretty much any app is going to consume the data, and DC-HSPA shows quite low latency compared to my prior device which ran 14mbit HSPA on AT&T.

You may want to try your tests again in the wee hours of the morning when most people are asleep and you can see what a low-load network behaves like.
[General Topics] mybook4:
Thought you guys would appreciate this. I am slowly turning all of my friends and family over to "the dark side".
[General Topics] Letitride:
Hahahaha ! That's a good one, LMAO - oh, heck - the good old Friends & Family calling circle that Big Red once offered before they axed it to its demise - along with that "Hello, Can You Hear Me Now" guy in the infommercials.
[General Topics] mattcoz:
Pretty sure he meant using Google Voice for voicemail. I don't think that works with this plan though.
[General Topics] nrvate:
Ah! I see what you mean :)

Shouldn't matter about the plan. Assuming one is using their Google Voice number, the incoming voice mail is delivered to the Google Voice app (and your email inbox, if you have that enabled) -- In both cases it's over the data connection. No need to call your voicemail; the GV app plays the audio for you, or you can download the attachment from your email inbox and play with whatever media player you have installed.

I have seen some cases, though, where one of the destination numbers that your GV number rings picks up before GV voicemail does -- This happened when I had my work phone as a destination number.. It's voicemail kicked in pretty early and most of my GV calls that went unanswered got picked up by my work extension's voicemail.. I asked our telecom guy to add 3 rings to my voicemail's pickup time and never had that issue again. If TMO's voicemail is picking up too soon, possibly the feature could simply be disabled if you call 611 enough times to get someone who understands what to do.

I too had a TMO voicemail notification after I inserted in the SIM.. before the phone was even activated. After setting up the voicemail box it went away.
[General Topics] unknown1205:
i'm getting VERY SIMILAR results to you on LTE. i have not tested speeds on HSPA+. when i first launch the test, it would always spike at 20Mbs+ and then if you look at the line graph it will slowly deteriorate and be VERY inconsistent and then my speeds drop.
[General Topics] KamaloPSU:
Thanks! Good to know. I guess my last question I will throw out there is if I go to the $30 a month T-Mo plan as I would like to, can I add more minutes ahead of time or do I need to just leave a balance on there for overage?
[General Topics] adrman:
Leave a balance for an overage.
[General Topics] ms0chez:
I got Nexus 5 and microsim yesterday and am so far impressed with the service. I thought it'd be worst but its holding up pretty well. Service seems to fairly match aio. Data is definitely better than aio. Loving I only had to pay $30.
[General Topics] Linch89:
I'm gonna post here bc I'm on tmo, except it's the $60 plan lol :) the only thing that sucks for me is there is only 2G in my area...yeah. Verizon may have blown but 4G was awesome. Hopefully we'll get at least 3G here soon bc this phone is siiiick
[General Topics] kayone73:
I ordered a free prepaid microsim from Tmobile site a couple days ago when I heard they were discounted from the regular $10 price but now I wanted to buy another sim for a friend who wants to switch to TMo and it appears the free promo is over. Can anyone confirm?

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/...ro-SIM-Card-Activation-Kit-No-Annual-Contract
[General Topics] murdock.hendrix:
Hi all,

I have been following this $30 TMo plan thread for days. Thanks for all the great info here.

I ordered a Nexus 5 (32G) in black and received it yesterday. My first Nexus phone. I had ordered the TMo sim starter kit from Walmart last week. I went online at TMo site and ran into a problem with the last page. Called the 800 number and got transferred around a couple of times until I got a CS rep that saw the problem and was ready to transfer me to yet another dept. I asked if he was going to cold transfer me to the next rep and at first he said yes then said he would warm transfer me to the correct place.

The rep came on the line and sorted it all out for me. She advised me it could take 24 hrs to port my ATT number and I would get a text message telling me when the port was done. Within 2 minutes I had TMo service and LTE on my N5, in about an hour I received the TMo text saying my number was ported. :good:

When I signed up I added the Hotspot service for $15 to the $30.00 plan. I plan on using the N5 as a hotspot for my Nexus 7 (2012). Anyone see any downside to this? Anything I missed? The Hotspot service will only be used while on vacation, day trips, etc. Can I remove this option at a later time and re-add it when I actually go out of town? :confused:

peace & happy droiding,

murdockhendrix
[General Topics] :
Somebody should combine all the relevant info into on post. Running through 25 pages is nuts.

If I may? How much data are you guys using in month?
[General Topics] kayone73:
People who just recently bought their prepaid sims, did you get it for free or pay the $10?
[General Topics] Greg Tolan:
I got mine for free. ordered last thursday from TMO. Free shipping as well. It should arrive today.

---------- Post added at 12:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:31 PM ----------

Not sure about removing it after but you should have tried just tethering using the N5's native tethering option before adding it. I plan on testing this tonight/tomorrow.
[General Topics] kayone73:
Do you remember if it displayed as $0 while it was in the cart or did it show up as $0 after entering your credit card info? I got one for free a couple days ago but I can't remember how it displayed. I want to order another one but it appears to be $10 again and I don't want to pay that unnecessarily if it's still free.
[General Topics] Greg Tolan:
It displayed $0 in the cart when I ordered it. I think there was a promo that ended on monday.
[General Topics] Shinyhead:
It shows $0 in the card. So glad I bought like 6 :S lol Stock up for my family...
[General Topics] andy o:
Just to report, this might be a bit premature, but using Talkatone here on the N5 is going great. I have the premium though, but they recently lowered it to $.99/mo and got rid of the $20/yr option. Gets you no ads, higher quality codec (higher bitrate), dynamic forwarding (choose to forward to Talk/phone depending on Wifi/cel data) and probably other little things. On the N4 it was a bit weird, most notably the option to use a slider interface for answering was just not there, while on the N10 and N5 it is. The premature part is that I seem to be getting less audio lag with the N5. Also, it will ring all your Talkatones if you have it on more than one device. Completely worth it.
[General Topics] flintdragon:
I apologize if this has been asked before.

I have an iphone with the $30 plan with a standard size sim. How would I go about transferring the number to the N5 with the micro sim?

would I be able to activate the micro sim with the $30 plan and transfer the number over?
[General Topics] chong67:
I have this plan before. I just don't feel VOIP is mature to do any critical work. You need lots of patience using this technology!
[General Topics] kayone73:
Standard sim can be trimmed to the size of a microsim, it can be done at your local store and stick it in the phone
[General Topics] unknown1205:
hey if i call someone and it reaches their voicemail and then i hangup without leaving a voicemail. do i still get charged for 1 minute?
[General Topics] wideasleep1:
Yes.

---------- Post added at 10:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:26 AM ----------

Yes.
[General Topics] magecca:
T-Mobile has a visual voicemail app that will only use data to listen and delete your future voicemails after setup. The initial setup, though, did use three minutes of my talk time as well.
[General Topics] kayone73:
Can the $30 plan be activated in the TMo store or online only?
[General Topics] magecca:
I went to a T-Mobile store, got a free SIM, activated it and ported my number.

But don't count on every or any store doing that.

Getting an activation kit at Target (since I don't shop at Wal-Mart ever) and activating it online was my original intention and I would have fallen back on that if the T-Mobile rep I got wasn't as facilitating as he was.
[General Topics] RacerX780:
I ordered the sim last week... just today got an email saying my order had been processed... Got the phone yesterday, so I figured I would go to the local T-Mobile store and just get another sim. So I paid the $10 and I'll have the free one coming in another day or two I figure.

Anyway... signed up for the $60 a month plan.. called and ported my #, but it's only partially ported. If I make a call from the N5, the caller ID shows as my old #. But if I call my old #, my old phone rings.

Hopefully it's just a glitch until it all gets sorted... I actually got the text from them about it being ported while I was still on the phone with the cs rep... even though he said it would take 24 hrs.

I've never ported my # before...so I don't know if this is normal or what......
[General Topics] brianhvo:
You, sir, are a godsend. I've been banging my head against the activation page and CSRs since last night trying to activate my SIM. Once I read your post, it switched city in the DFW metroplex and chose a new area code (214 is all filled up apparently). The online activation worked like a charm when I changed to a 972 area code. Thanks to you, I'm now enjoying 5GB of data @ $30/month. Can't beat that.
[General Topics] mattcoz:
Yes, it works if they call your Google Voice number, but it doesn't support forwarding for calls to your T-Mobile number.

---------- Post added at 04:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:31 PM ----------

But it's not available on prepaid plans, right?
[General Topics] Cleanskinned:
I'm on the Simple Choice Family Plan with two other people. The total bill is about $100, so about $33 per line with 500MB Data, Unlimited Text and Voice. Does the Simple Choice plan have any advantage to the $30 prepaid one other than unlimited voice?
[General Topics] diablonyc2:
I too am getting mixed results. I think the highest I have seen is 14mbps---but most were under 10mbps
[General Topics] Lockeskidney:
yea tons of drop outs and people saying you go in and out when calling them. I'm also having issues now with VOIP and kit kat. I call over wifi and it works fine. I try to place a call over LTE and it doesnt connect
[General Topics] Shinyhead:
The $30 plan offers more 4g data before they throttle the speed compared to the simple choice family plan. The $30 does not have unlimited minutes and only offer 100 minutes a month. The simple choice plan with 3 or more people is better if you don't need that much data, I guess. I plan on doing the same thing with my family later this month.
[General Topics] adrman:
I've used this plan for well over a year, first on my gnex and now on my N5. Wi-Fi or not, I found calling via grooveip to be unuseable. Since I used voip.ms on my home sip line, I purchased an additional did from them and used it as a GV forwarding number when I was on Wi-Fi. I tried all the sip clients and csipsimple was the best. However, even though things sounded good on my end, most people had issues with the audio they were receiving from me. I ended up purchasing a did from Skype and using it as a GV forwarding number. That's been working fantastically on Wi-Fi. People couldn't tell the difference. Fast forward to the N5, this solution works even better, because now it's usable over LTE. The biggest drawback is the Skype app doesn't integrate with Google contacts for incoming call id. I've yet to go back and try my voip.ms did and csipsimple with the N5, but will give it a try soon.

On another note, it you're using GV as your main number and want to use GV voicemail, you have to call T-Mobile prepaid customer service and have them deactivate voicemail on your account. They'll argue with you about it, but eventually will do it. That way you can be sure that T-Mobile's voice mail doesn't pick up before GV does.
[General Topics] bob60626:
This seems to even work on wifi only. I had data off, wifi on, ignored a call :D, and it went to visual voicemail.

The app is available on the market. I've downloaded it onto two AT&T phones on T-Mobile and it worked just as well as my TMO S2 and Note 2.
[General Topics] kayone73:
refillmobi.com is fresh out of stock all T Mobile prepaid cash cards, any other good sources online?
[General Topics] Deekayy:
Another thing to note is that the simple choice plan is a primary network vs prepaid is secondary network. Meaning that primary network gets first in line if the T-mobile towers is congested (probably by other 3rd party companies like straight talk, family mobile, solevei, or simple mobile). Secondary network gets second meaning their network or signal will be poor when the T-mobile towers is congested. I had this explained to me through several people and the T-Mo customer service as well.

Also you probably won't get the additional free options for prepaid like call-waiting or wifi calling.
[General Topics] mattcoz:
This service is not available to prepaid users.
[General Topics] Mr. Sprinkles:
I use callingmart mostly. Pinzoo is good too.
[General Topics] kayone73:
I checked out callingmart, so it's the Tmobile to go prepaid wireless airtime refill cards, right?
[General Topics] FuMMoD:
So how exactly are you guys setting up Wifi calling or even calling out using mobile internet? Is there some sort of guide out there detailing how to set it up? I checked out those Voip apps but you have to pay for the servers and what not which defeats the purpose of getting the 30 dollars plan cause you have to pay extra for other voip features. Thanks
[General Topics] Gaffadin:
Talkatone has a very usable free version, although as stated Google are changing the API so it might not work after May 2014.
[General Topics] FuMMoD:
Is there any guides available out there that I can search for? I'm just looking for what search terms to use, if that makes any sense.
[General Topics] howardroark:
Compatible VOIP apps

Does anyone know of any compatible VOIP apps? I tried SIPDroid and it is not compatible with Kit Kat, it just crashes.
[General Topics] adrman:
I haven't tried it on the N5 yet, but the play store shows csipsimple as being compatible. It was always the best app of the bunch on my gnex and I tried them all.
[General Topics] howardroark:
Thanks, I'll check that out after work.

Is there any way for something like Tasker to change this? I'd like for it to forward calls to my mobile number when I am not on Wifi... I doubt that is possible, but it would be ideal.
[General Topics] br0adband:
No idea, never used Tasker but from what I've read and heard spoken about it, you just might be able to find a way to make that work. If you're using GV + GrooveIP/Talkatone, calls to your GV number will still get to your phone on Wi-Fi - actual mobile calls to your actual T-Mobile cell number would go through just fine as well since voice calls don't have anything to do with data (2G/3G/4G/LTE) hence you get regular mobile calls whether you're on Wi-Fi or not.
[General Topics] howardroark:
How do you personally deal with this setting always on? What if you get a call when you have no data?
[General Topics] br0adband:
Never been in a situation where I don't have data so I can't speak to that - I edited the post above so make sure to re-read it.

Just for the record:

I don't give out my T-Mobile number, ever - the only number I give out is my Google Voice number so everything is tied to that number and account. All calls, all texts, everything goes to my Google Voice number. There are only like 3 people with my actual T-Mobile number: T-Mobile, my Wife, and another friend and that's it.

YMMV, of course.
[General Topics] dagaetch:
I wonder if you could work it a different way: have GV forward to both the cell number and google chat, but set tasker or equiv to disable cell radio when wifi is connected?
[General Topics] br0adband:
As stated, I don't use nor have I ever used Tasker so any questions towards that app aren't anything I can answer or speak to. I'm sure some industrious person will probably find a way to wrangle some macro or whatever Tasker uses to do such things... I found it easier when I started using GV+Talkatone to just use that GV number I have and never bother giving out the T-Mobile one at all, it's served my purposes for some time now.

Since I've had it for so long (the GV number is nearly 2 years old) I could even port it over to T-Mobile if I wanted but things work perfectly as they are and that's the only number anyone really has for me that would end up being problematic in the long run.

The whole concept of Google Voice is to "finally" give yourself one number that handles pretty much absolutely anything so I've been using it in that respect for myself and it's been great so far.
[General Topics] dagaetch:
Yeah I basically only use the GV number as well, but there are plenty of times when I don't have a wifi signal. Will talkatone work over lte?